The National Tour Association (NTA) will for the first time in its 62-year history invite retail travel agents to attend its annual Travel Exchange conference.
Agents are invited to attend the last two days of the conference, Feb. 19 and 20, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The entire conference is from Feb. 16-20.
The cost for travel agents to register is $49, which they can do here.
On Feb. 19, NTA has created a roundtable networking session that enable travel agents to meet with tour operators and destination marketing organizations that have secured a booth for the networking event.
NTA tour operators and DMOs must pay a $100 fee to participate in this networking session.
Additionally, travel agents will be invited to mingle with NTA members during luncheons, educational seminars and social functions throughout the two days.
“We opened the dialogue with members about including travel agents 10 months ago at Travel Exchange ’13 in Orlando,” NTA President Lisa Simon said in a statement. “Members made positive comments about this opportunity for new business, so we moved forward and created an NTA program for agent participation.”
NTA is working with the Association of Retail Travel Agents and other agent groups to generate awareness about its new agent initiative.
This is the first time NTA is offering a program for travel agents. The organization has existing members who are travel agents, but they participate as buyers because they package travel.
The Travel Exchange event is co-hosted by NTA and the United Motorcoach Association.