The National Tour Association's board of
directors conducted a national search to find a new president and
ended up back where they started.
The board has
finally settled on Lisa Simon, who had been working in the position
on an interim basis since the departure of Hank Phillips in August
2006.
Simon has a history
with the NTA dating back to 1985, when she first joined the staff
of the organization; from 1998 to 2004, she served as senior vice
president. Prior to her return to the NTA in 2006, Simon worked as
executive director of the International Coach
Federation.
Simon told
TravelWeekly.com that the interim period gave her a chance to get
her bearings. "It's fun getting back involved with the NTA," she
said. "I've got a lot of friends and family here, so I'm glad to be
getting back in full time. Being involved over the last six months
has given me an opportunity to see where things are and I'm quite
impressed with the high energy of our leadership team, our board
and all our committees and membership. They're all in synch and
passionate about moving the organization forward."
In January the
various teams of NTA put together a strategic plan. "We looked at
packaged travel, how operators have changed, the big issues that
the organization should be paying attention to," Simon said. "Now
we're in the process of implementing [the plan], making it a
living, breathing plan for the future."
The key word now is
"diversity," she said, a trend that applies across the board to
domestic, international, group and independent travel markets. "The
fact that everyone wants what they want, nobody wants the same
product anymore," said Simon. "Tour operators and packagers have to
meet the very specific needs of their clients."
The NTA is devising
strategies to help its membership meet the challenges presented by
the explosion of diversity in the marketplace, Simon said. "We'll
be looking for ways to maximize business opportunities not only
between operator and supplier, but also operator to operator,
through our annual convention, our spring meet and our magazine,
and through education and research into what is going on in the
marketplace."
To contact
reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].