Virtuoso made a number of significant changes to the format of the ‘Fashion Week of travel’ (ie. the annual Virtuoso Travel Week) in 2024, with perhaps the biggest shake-up being the scrapping of assigned appointments, flagged by LATTE in June.
“You asked for more control of your schedule so we’re empowering you to design your afternoons,” Jennifer Campbell, Virtuoso’s SVP Network Products & Events said at the Opening Session of Travel Week. “With that flexibility comes a bit more work on your part, so you have to put a bit more work into it,” she foreshadowed.Each afternoon of this year’s VTW, travel advisors had a three hour block to schedule one-on-one appointments with preferred partners, where there were 2,000 from around the world “just to connect with you,” she said.
This year’s event also saw the introduction of the Hotel Showcase, building on the success of the Preferred Partner Lounge which has been a home for Virtuoso’s Preferred cruise lines for the past few years.
Campbell explained the program tweaks were linked to the theme of the 2024 event, “The Voice of Luxury”, saying the motif represents “the collective sharing and harmony of our network”.
“Together you, our partners and our members, are a voice of the industry, creating the best, the new and the next in luxury travel. And the power behind that voice lies in our diversity.”
“Our very backgrounds, our business models and offerings that allow us to deliver the right experience, backed by authentic relationships to a richly diverse group of affluent travellers around the world.”
“It was your voice, your feedback, that initiated significant changes to Virtuoso Travel Week this year,” she said.
“We know that changing something as big as this comes with risk but honestly Virtuoso Travel Week hasn’t been one singular event for years. It’s multiple events that build the Virtuoso community in a temporary city that we create each August.”
“It’s Globetrotting, Personal Development, Lounges, Cafes, awards and more. Throughout the week our event facilitates hundreds of events hosted by you, our members and our partners, and as our community has become more global and diverse we’re able to innovate and evolve our events to better match the needs of our member agencies, our advisors and our partners. And Virtuoso Travel Week is no different.”
In 2024, qualifications applied for advisors to attend Virtuoso Travel Week, rather than being a first come, first serve basis.
“We remain committed to a varied and dynamic audience that fosters meaningful connections and enriches the event experience for all our attendees and this week we have a great mix of top-producing advisors, new to Virtuoso, and the familiar faces who are central to our network,” Campbell explained.
The rationale behind the qualification process
Michael Londregan, Virtuoso’s Senior Vice President of Operations explained that the rationale at being selective with attendees was to be able to prioritise advisors that were “engaging and producing” at the highest level with Preferred partners.
“Suppliers who are priortitising their ‘A’ team, not their ‘B’ team – we’re going to prioritise them to attend, to ensure that we’re creating the audience of quality, not first in, first served.”
Londregan told LATTE that this year Virtuoso said “no to hundreds” of partners and a lot of advisors. In some instances, Virtuoso knocked back some advisor requests if their agency was already well represented.
“What we don’t want is people who miss out, who are engaging, as that can be quite a demotivation for them.”
Londregan also noted that some advisors may miss the first few weeks of the application process, missing out to those who promptly submitted their registrations. The new qualified applicant format provided more breathing room for those “who may have been in Africa for a few weeks and offline,” he said.
Campbell said that with no assigned appointments, each morning commenced with matched appointments, selected by advisors and “spending time with who you choose”.
Networking tables were reduced “to ensure quality experiences for both members”, paving the way for the new Hotel Showcase – a designated space at the Bellagio for independent hotels, brands and hotel representation firms, available for meetings throughout the week. Each afternoon there were activations, and a ‘happy hour’ to end the sessions.
Campbell highlighted that another new element to the week was ‘Virtuoso presents braindate’.
There were over 100 braindate throughout the week. Topics included ‘Why offering a personalised and unique shopping experience adds value to your client’s program’ and ‘A Scottish culinary exploration with A&K’ or ‘Anything and Everything AI and Humanising Automation, with Dr Jill Schiefelbein’ and ‘Low Carbon Travel – How to deliver sustainable trips without compromise, with Rachael Gaven’.
Virtuoso also introduced wellness activities that delegates were encouraged to participate, such as step counts, completing workouts, the first ever Virtuoso fun run, and wellness activities every morning to start the day.
“Changing Virtuoso Travel Week came with risk, but we embraced that risk,” Campbell said.
“Our goal has been to meet the increasingly different needs of our network by providing paths to success for advisors while complementing the goals of our preferred partners and our members.
Other adjustments at VTW 2024 saw professional development sessions offered midweek (not just on Sunday), with classes open on Wednesday afternoon. And there were more peer-led professional development sessions.
Opinions to the changes
LATTE reached out to a number of Virtuoso advisor and partners for their views on the changes.
Michael Nolan, Managing Director of Bayview Travel has been a Virtuoso member agency since 2004 and has attended Virtuoso Travel Week around 10 times.
“The look and feel of this year’s setting was definitely different to those I remember. I have always enjoyed the random nature of the appointments because you never know what enquiry will land your on desk when you get home, so I was a bit dubious about the new and longer format which meant seeing less partners.”
“But I loved the 9-minute matched appointments which were slated in the mornings. The appointments gave a meaningful amount of time to engage and learn, and an opportunity to secure a good connection,” Nolan said.
“It was a much more worthwhile exchange than the existing signature 4-minute model, both in terms of education and connection. I made a point of choosing partners who were perhaps ones who I did not know or product I was not so familiar with, so it was a good use of my time.”
Nolan, who was the Virtuoso ANZ 2023 Southern Cross Award recipient, said the afternoon schedule offered a much more relaxed environment to reconnect with known and new partners, and to meet with people you really wanted to see.
“It was a great opportunity to meet with other streams such as Tech Partners, Virtuoso staff or Professional Development, something I have missed in other years due to the commitments with managing an all day schedule with 4 minute appointments on the “tracks”. This sort of engagement is not always available at other shows, so it was a real opportunity.”
“The new format definitely reflects a fresher and more considered experience – on reflection the existing format could be a marathon at times!”
“The one thing that did not change was the palpable energy that Virtuoso Travel Week offers at every angle. Whatever the format is, there is no travel event on the planet that offers the same level of energy or brings such opportunity to celebrate our wonderful industry together.”
Lisa Pile, Vice President Sales & General Manager, Asia Pacific for Regent Seven Seas Cruises has participated in Virtuoso Travel Week in all but three years since 2001. She told LATTE this year’s VTW was “very productive”.
“The changes implemented have certainly assisted us with spending further time with our Virtuoso Travel Advisors from across the Asia Pacific.”
“Overall, it was an excellent Virtuoso Travel Week.”
But not all opinions were positive, with an anonymous Preferred partner attending VTW for their 10th time telling LATTE: “While I personally loved Globetrotting sessions – especially on Saturday – Sunday was bit of a mess. Not everyone turned up and each group kept changing people who were joining some groups and leaving others. I wish it would be more mandatory and monitored for the advisors to ensure they attend.”
“I loved the format of 10 minutes where we can really bring in an experience to explain in a better environment than the table format. If I could just attend these with no speed dating/table appointments, I would almost prefer this,” the partner said in their wide-ranging commentary.
“The Virtuoso Team always listens to feedback and tries to improve based on the comments we give and make changes accordingly, but it is also impossible to please 6,000 people,” the Virtuoso Preferred Partner added.
