2009 Spring Meet Education
Friday, June 5
General Crackerbarrel
Friday, June 5, 9:15-10:30 a.m.
Featured Facilitators:
NTA Chairman and CEO Michele Michalewicz, CTP, Western Leisure Inc.
NTA Vice Chairman Cathy Greteman, Star Destinations Inc.
This open forum is your opportunity to ask questions, share ideas and raise issues with your peers. You'll have plenty of time to bring up topics for discussion and have many of your questions answered.
Where We Are: Global Economic Update
Friday, June 5, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Peter Tarlow, Tourism and More
Tourism around the world is facing perhaps its most trying economic period in modern times. In this session, Dr. Peter Tarlow (back by popular demand from the NTA 2008 Convention) will look at such questions as: What can you do about it? What are the trends to watch? Which parts of the tourism system are most vulnerable? How can you survive and even prosper in these extraordinary times?
ALL WELCOME! A Look at the Global Gay and Lesbian Market
Friday, June 5, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Tom Nibbio, Manager of Global Partnerships and Education, International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association
During this session, NTA strategic partner IGLTA will share information on the gay and lesbian market to help you gain knowledge and information from a global perspective. As you learn about this diverse and lucrative market, Tom Nibbio will share examples of how other tourism professionals have expanded their business and successfully marketed their products and services in this arena. You'll leave this session with ideas as to how you can reach (or better serve) the gay and lesbian market.
Exploring a World of Opportunities through Sister Cities
Friday, June 5, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Nancy Huppert, past president, Sister Cities International
Travel helps promote cultural understanding and broadens peoples' perspectives. Similarly, the mission of Sister Cities International is to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. Sister Cities International, an NTA strategic partner, represents more than 700 U.S. communities and nearly 2,500 partnerships with sister communities in 134 countries. Attend this session to learn more about this organization, the travel needs of its membership and how NTA tour operators can benefit from this potential new business.
Learning Luncheon
Friday, June 5, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
NTA introduced the Learning Luncheon at the 2008 Spring Meet and is bringing it back on request. Following the lunch, time will be available for an open discussion at your table. Each table will have a facilitator to help guide the discussion, and you should feel comfortable to shift to another discussion if more than one topic piques your interest. A series of topics will be available including the economy, technology, FIT travel, tips for media relations, NTA's Tour20 Group, tips for creative product development and more. Have ideas for what you would like to discuss? Please contact Catherine Prather at catherine.prather@NTAstaff.com.
Tackling the Current Economic Situation: Key Ideas to Creative Thinking
Friday, June 5, 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Peter Tarlow, Tourism and More
Tourism and travel professionals need to develop creative ways to tackle an economic malaise with a global reach. In this session, Dr. Peter Tarlow will focus on what others around the world are doing during these hard times and discuss keys to creative thinking to move through the current economic situation. The session will involve small group brainstorming and collaboration, so come prepared to share ideas and best practices so that you can work together to bring the profit to tourism.
Build Your Brand in the Faith Tourism & Hospitality Marketplace
Friday, June 5, 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Kevin J. Wright, World Religious Travel Association
Join Kevin J. Wright, president of the World Religious Travel Association, as he shares the why and how behind making your organization not only a "known entity" in the $18 billion faith tourism and hospitality marketplace, but also a brand leader. WRTA is an NTA strategic partner and the two associations will co-locate their annual conventions this November (2009) in Reno.
China Market Update
Friday, June 5, 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Mark Brown, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, U.S. Department of Commerce
China is on the verge of becoming the world's #1 source of travelers. These travelers are increasingly exploring the world beyond intra-Asia destinations such as Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. China has had, and will continue to have, one of the highest growth rates of travel to the United States. And these travelers spend lots of money. NTA and its members are well positioned to benefit from the opening of group leisure travel to the U.S. resulting from the 2008 U.S.-China agreement. This session will present a brief primer on China, trends in Chinese visitation to the U.S., and key findings from the recently completed year-long study of the long-haul leisure Chinese outbound travel market. Learn what Chinese travel suppliers, government officials, and travelers themselves say are the keys to attracting Chinese leisure group travelers and to providing a memorable travel experience.
How to Tailor Risk and Crisis Planning for Your Business
Friday, June 5, 3:30 p.m.-4:45 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Peter Tarlow, Tourism and More
The best crisis management planning is to avoid the crisis. This session will help you prepare for and deal with the principal risks for your business and what you should do should the risk become a crisis. World expert in risk and crisis management Dr. Peter Tarlow will cover methodology to help you determine principal risks and how to work through them.
Heritage Tourism and Connecting with the African-American Market
Friday, June 5, 3:30 p.m.-4:45 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Charlotte Haymore, Co-founder, Travel Professionals of Color
During this session, NTA strategic partner TPOC will explore heritage tourism and connecting people to their roots and the past. TPOC's Charlotte Haymore will share ideas on how to reach the minority travel market-specifically the African-American market-through heritage tourism, recapturing history and developing travel packages to best serve these travelers. Haymore hopes to help you find the missing link for connecting with the African-American market.
How to Do Well by Doing Good
Friday, June 5, 3:30 p.m.-4:45 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Cathleen Johnson, Edelman
The culture of your company speaks volumes and showing the "good purpose" side of your business can provide measurable results. Putting a good purpose at the center of your brand can build mutual social responsibility for you and your clients and bring a new type of ROI-Return on Involvement. The new view of ROI includes a financial reason to do business with your company, true brand differentiation and a halo effect for your brand that gives consumers more reason to buy. In this session, you will learn how doing good will not only help improve your company's image, it also will demonstrate that purposeful business pays. Come prepared to share how your company shows its good purpose side as there will be time for open discussion during this session.
Saturday, June 6
The Basics of Green Travel and Sustainability
Saturday, June 6, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Featured Speaker:
Brian Mullis, President, Sustainable Travel International
Join NTA strategic partner Sustainable Travel International to explore the basics of green travel and sustainability. If you don't understand why sustainability approaches are critical for the future, this session will help you gain this perspective. Learn how more and more customers are coming to expect environmental responsibility, so you can not only profit from a marketing advantage but also experience a savings on your company's operations. And if that's not enough, you'll learn practices that help your company be good to the environment that is the very essence of travel and tourism and its future.
How Can We Help Each Other and Our Businesses?
Saturday, June 6, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Moderator: Michele Michalewicz, CTP, NTA Chairman and CEO; Western Leisure
Panelists:
Mark Hoffmann, CTP, Sports Leisure Vacations
Phil Sheldon, Hanns Ebensten Travel, Alyson Adventures
Members of NTA's Tour20 Group will share some of the results from their benchmarking findings and lead a discussion on timely topics including tips for being more profitable in the current economy and handling human resources/workforce issues, such as sick and vacation time and keeping good employees. Come prepared to share your best practices and have your questions ready so you can gain priceless feedback and input from your NTA operator colleagues.
Promoting Quality Experiences: New Criteria and Best Practices for the China Inbound Program (Special session for tour operators of the NTA China Inbound Program)
Saturday, June 6, 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Featured Speakers:
Lisa Simon, CTP, NTA President
Matt Grayson, NTA Director of Government and Industry Relations
As the only association providing a list of tour operators eligible to receive group leisure travelers from China, NTA is committed to providing the best possible visitor experience for this growing market. From the China Inbound Task Force and other tour operators, NTA learned that certain practices (such as coerced shopping activities) were not promoting a welcoming visitor experience. To address such issues that have arisen since the signing of the MOU in December 2007, NTA prepared a new set of criteria, which has been approved by the CNTA. Tour operators are asked to attest to this new set of criteria to affirm their standing on NTA's Approved Tour Operator list.
Also, in order to further foster quality service for Chinese inbound visitors to the United States, the China Inbound Task Force and other NTA approved tour operators have compiled a set of Best Practices for the Chinese Inbound Market. The Best Practices document will offer guidance on consumer relations and business conduct that will promote visitor satisfaction and harmonious business relationships.
This session will outline current tour operator requirements and explain new requirements designed to promote a satisfactory visitor experience, as well as address the Best Practices. Both documents will be available at the session and on www.NTAonline.com following the Spring Meet.
Getting the Most Out of your NTA Membership (Special session for tour operators of the NTA China Inbound Program)
Saturday, June 6, 3:45 p.m.-4:45 p.m.
Featured Speakers:
Lisa Simon, CTP, NTA President
Matt Grayson, NTA Director of Government and Industry Relations
The National Tour Association is more than just the China Inbound Program. Learn how you can take advantage of all the products and services NTA has to offer. Your NTA membership brings you access to thousands of U.S. supplier and destination partners and may entitle you to insurance rate reductions and other price discounts with our Corporate Partners. Also, take advantage of all the business tools at your disposal, such as the searchable member database at NTAonline.com. NTA Chairman and CEO Michele Michalewicz, CTP, and China Inbound Task Force Chairman Jack Liu will provide you with information on NTA products and services that will enable you to get more value from your NTA membership.