At Travel Leaders Network's Edge conference in San Diego this month, Travel Weekly features editor Emma Weissmann sat down with president Lindsay Pearlman to talk about his reflections from a year on the job, how TLN is positioning its growth strategy and the network's plan for the future.
Lindsay Pearlman
Q: You're coming up on one year as president of TLN. How has the first year been?
A: I'm fortunate that I took over this role 11 months ago, but I've been with the company for seven years. If you take a look at the performance of the organization, we're doing exceptionally well. In normal cases where a new president comes into a company, quite often they want to leave their own mark and things change significantly. Well, I didn't want to do that. If I'm looking at success, I think, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." So the question now becomes, "Are there things that I see that we can do, and evolve, that's reflective of what's happening in the marketplace?"
Q: One of the changes you made was expanding TLN's Member Success Team. What went into that decision?
A: We hired 11 people within the field team, and they're tasked with understanding the members' businesses and then saying to them: "Based on what we have to offer, which is a huge range of products and services, what works for your business?" So instead of assuming that the member is going to understand everything that we have, it's really about asking, "If we offer 9,000 things, and you only need three, what are those three things? And how do we help you integrate it into your business to be more successful?"
Q: In the first quarter of 2026, the network added 90 members, a rate of one new member per day. What's your stance on growing the network?
A: You have to grow. But our philosophy is interesting, because I like to say, in the travel business, we are the biggest company that no one's heard about. And we do that on purpose. It's not about our brand, it's about our members' brands. So when we are talking to people who are thinking about joining us, what we want to know is, how can we help them build their brand, their market, their supply and their customers, with the right value and the right product, at the right time? It's not a one-size-fits-all. It's really about flexibility. And understanding that has resonated with our new members very well.
Q: What's your vision for the next year for TLN?
A: Member satisfaction. We survey the members to see how they're feeling, and we score that competitively. Our scores, overall, are pretty good. I just want them to be better. I think we're on the right track with all those other segments that we talked about. It's just really adjusting the culture piece of it.
Q: You spoke during Edge about headwinds facing the travel industry. What advice do you have for travel advisors who are facing challenges?
A: When hasn't there been a time that there's been an issue? I can go back to the year 2000 with the tech bubble; 2008, with the financial crisis; 2011, when Obama said that the advisors and bank tellers are going the way of the dodo bird. So you accept the fact that there's always going to be something.
And the neatest thing about the agency community is the reference to travel "advisors" now. You don't hear the term "travel agent" as much anymore. So that title drives a different thought process, and that's how the business has adapted well, regardless of all that noise.
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This interview was edited for length and clarity.