Randy Julian, president of
Alexandria, Va.-based Julian Tours, was named chairman of the
National Tour Association for 2007. David Cogswell, Travel Weekly's
tour operators editor, talked to him about his plans.
Q:
What do you see as the NTA's mission for the coming
year?
A:
We want to continue trying to do things to increase the numbers and
the diversity in our ranks, to build business opportunities and to
strengthen our connection with existing members. There's a focus on
growth and diversity. And as an outgrowth of that, we have a chance
to be the umbrella organization for packaged travel. We're also
going to be charged with picking the right person to be the
permanent executive director.
I think we need to
reintroduce our members to the travel agent community. Back in
1999, NTA President Robert Brennan was very travel agent-savvy and
-friendly, but in this recent tumultuous period, we haven't been
paying all that much attention to our travel agent
colleagues.
There's a whole new
generation of travel agents, including the home-based agents, who
don't know much about the packaged travel product. I plan to take
some steps to introduce our products to the travel agent community.
I'll be meeting with ASTA next week to begin some talks on
collaborating.
I'd also like to
take some steps to make us look like the communities in which we
live and work. Since we have this great diversity of product, how
about a diversity of people? I've made an effort to put some people
of color on our committees.
Q:
What would you like to see the NTA do for its members?
A:
I think making relevant business opportunities is what we must do.
We want that to be the hook, the biggest reason for joining and
being active. We need to continue to grow and diversify, create
alliances and collaborate with other sister and brother
organizations.
Q:
What is the NTA's unique role in the industry. What separates it
from other trade organizations?
A:
There's a place to do bus, student and youth travel, international
inbound and outbound. But we feel we can be the umbrella for all
packaged travel. This is our chance to ramp it up.
The NTA has 600
operator members. Yes, there's a place for these specific, very
narrow niches to go. But we have them all under our tent. We're
going to be focusing on that. There's a reason to get all together
under one roof.
We're going to be
continuing our ongoing work on our convention, to make it as wide a
packaged-travel community as possible, the place we do business.
We'll possibly explore some other venues, other gatherings where
business is conducted.
Another point is
our Washington presence. We have our government relations arm, and
Jim Santini [the NTA's Washington lobbyist], who continues to be
the most visible tour and travel guy in D.C.
Q:
How did the CrossSphere renaming change the direction or
functioning of the organization?
A:
I was in the distinct minority. I liked the name. I was an advocate
and was part of the board that moved on that. History will show
that the process we chose was not good in that we didn't reach out
to the membership. But it wound up galvanizing the membership. It
engaged people once again and got people involved once
again.
To contact
reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].