Members of the ASTA board of directors ended their day-long meeting at the close of the Travel Retailing and Destination Expo in Los Angeles saying they were energized by a renewed sense of purpose and mission.
Part of that feeling might have been the result of simple relief over the fact that at the last minute, one of the two candidates for the presidency withdrew from the race in the interest of unity.
At the same time, three new members from the management of Travel Leaders Group companies were widely seen to represent three crucial pillars of the travel retail segment.
With Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group; John Lovell, president of Vacation.com; and Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion, the board now has members who represent the three key agency types: a franchise, a consortium and a host agency for independent contractors.
Other board members also represent important constituencies in their own way. They are agents who moved their agencies home or have always been home-based, and members of other consortia or co-ops.
Whatever their affiliation or business model, the board members interviewed after a marathon session Sept. 9 that wrapped up the show sounded eager to work to ensure the future of a trade organization that has been struggling with membership numbers and finances in recent years. One board member estimated that only 20% of agencies are ASTA members.
Much of the renewed energy appeared to have been fueled by having Travel Leaders onboard in a major way.
“It’s probably the coolest thing that’s happened to ASTA in 10 years, that the heads of large consortia and franchise businesses have put their money and their time where their mouths are and joined at the board level,” said Scott Pinheiro, president of Santa Cruz Travel and a member of ASTA since the 1980s.
Pinheiro said that Travel Leaders Franchise Group, Vacation.com and Nexion are privy to a vast amount of information about what’s happening in the business from the wide variety of agencies they represent.
“We look at having them as a huge asset to help make some good decisions and develop a business plan that will make ASTA viable in the future and have more direction on what the needs of the industry are,” said Pinheiro.
Lois Howes of Superior Travel, who moved her agency home and merged with a friend’s agency, said that Block, Lovell and Friedman are not really from the same company.
“They’re three different ones,” she said. “We will get a lot of information from them that we wouldn’t otherwise.” She said she also sees them as a source of new members.
“Now that they’re onboard, they have to push,” she said.
Block said about 70% of Travel Leaders franchise agencies belong to ASTA; a Vacation.com spokesman said about 750 of the consortium’s 5,100 members belong to the Society.
Newly re-elected ASTA President Nina Meyer dismissed any suggestion that Travel Leaders would be dominating the board.
“You have 16 members, and it takes a majority to do anything,” she said. “They are not the majority, and I don’t have any concern about that.”
V-com's Lovell made his commitment to the Society clear.
“ASTA is an organization that needs to remain, and it needs to be a relevant association for the health and well-being of this distribution channel,” he said.
He said ASTA’s advocacy role is key to both protecting the industry from government regulation at both the state and federal level and keeping the business attractive to new entrants. He said he would work to help guide ASTA in figuring out how to communicate the value of what it does for the distribution channel.
“We need to have a very healthy ASTA, and that starts with membership,” Lovell said, adding that commitment starts at the chapter level. To get that commitment, he said, ASTA has to establish its value propositions for business owners, which means finding a way to make ASTA relevant to owners of agencies of all sizes and all business models.
Nexion's Friedman said part of ASTA’s challenge is communicating the benefits it provides leisure agencies; she said it’s easier for corporate agencies to see the value of ASTA’s advocacy work. As for her own members, she said ASTA’s work on a multi-industry coalition about independent contractors is very important.
In past years, the board has elected its officers and then disbanded. Meyer said the fact that the board this year followed the election with a full-fledged meeting gave it a head start on the year.
One element of excitement in this year’s election was Jason Coleman, owner of Jason Coleman Inc. and immediate past president of the Young Professionals Society, who challenged Meyer for the presidency, presenting himself as a candidate of change, then withdrew at the last minute in a show of unity.
Among the issues about which Coleman expressed concern were the structure and role of chapters, the relationship and future of ASTA and the National Association of Career Travel Agents, which ASTA owns, and ASTA’s evolving trade show strategy.
Friedman said she believes that everyone on the board agrees change is needed.
“Jason very visibly communicated what his vision for change was,” she said, “and I don’t think that he’s alone. I think that many of us think that change is needed, and he spent a lot of time articulating that, which was great.”
Coleman, who is a director at large, later said he believes that the board can unite in its “pursuit of change that will move ASTA forward.”
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.