Virtuoso will consider adding new travel agency members, heighten its travel advisor training programs and expand its home-grown and developed Regional Preferred Partner Program – now rolled out globally – as the luxury travel market continues to expand.
Six months into the role General Manager of Virtuoso, Australia and New Zealand, Greg Treasure tells LATTE he feels “fortunate” and humbled to be leading the luxury travel consortia in the region.
With his first Virtuoso Travel Week now under his belt, Treasure has certainly found his feet in the role. In Las Vegas earlier this month, he told LATTEhe feels honoured to have “inherited a mature business which has been around for more than 20 years,” while complementing the local team and the structure that is in place.
The former senior level corporate travel executive said Virtuoso is blessed to already have a “fair majority” of the high-end members or agencies that service the luxury segment in Australia and New Zealand.
Quizzed by LATTEon his vision and objectives for Virtuoso, Treasure said: “With the quality of the partnerships that we have, I don’t see my role as trying to be a change agent of anything.”
“I look at the luxury ecosystem that we’re part of, and I feel my role is like a conservationist that’s there to help nurture and grow the ecosystem.”
“It’s a fair sense of responsibility to make sure that our whole ethos is around elevating the Travel Advisor,” he said.
“Virtuoso made the role of a Travel Advisor, a real profession and I like the fact that we are a membership model, and that our whole structure is centred on the success of our members and the performance of our members. Likewise with partners, because as part of this ecosystem, we’re all part of – and that’s what you see here at Travel Week – is we’re co-dependent on each other for success.”
“It’s different at Virtuoso because we’re not a buying group. We’re part of a community, and we are there for each other’s success and I think that rings true. That’s why we see the energy levels at our events, people are leaning in and really want to be part of it.”
Treasure explains that the key focus for Virtuoso, as the luxury segment evolves, is to “look to continue to grow the membership, selectively.”
“We’re not looking at rapid expansion but as the segment grows, we will be presented with opportunities from organisations that want to be part of the network.
“We’ll continue to evaluate those and find organisations that have common values and that we think would be a good fit for the community.”
Treasure said new entrants in the field need to be approved by Virtuoso’s member advisory board. “Everyone’s got to be in agreement that they will be a good fit. Out of 30 applications we might end up with three or four that are actually successful to join in.”
“So it’s not about just trying to grab as many as possible. There is criteria on who comes in.”
“The elevation of the advisor, and continuing to grow and support the development and the next generation of travel advisors coming through is really, really important to us and our members.”
Education and training
“If you ask what are the common issues for our members, finding the next generation of talent is a frontrunner.”
“Through the Virtuoso personal development, our academy and the training modules, we will work continually work hard on getting as many advisors through and growing the talent within that advisor community. In line with that adding more regionally relevant product on our preferred product offering,” Treasure said.
Regional Preferred Partner Program
“Our regional partner program now have the equivalent offering in other parts of the world that complements what we’re doing in Australia and New Zealand.”
“We will continue to develop that Regional Partner Program with the direction of our member advisory board as to partners that they would like to see in as part of the offering.”
“There is some fantastic product in Australia and New Zealand that they’ve never brought to region,” he said.
“In terms of the opportunity for the market and to educate advisors, to provide options for customers that we don’t already see in market, is immense. Coming to events like this really does give you exposure on a totally different level,” Treasure said.
Virtuoso events
“Our events are a really important part of what we do. Next year, we’ve got 10 events. The great news is this year all our events have been fully subscribed. Next year we’re running similar types of events on a similar timetable.”
Those events comprise Forum for Owner/Managers (next year will be in Perth/Boorloo); Connects events are hosted in smaller cities featuring a variety of partners, On Tour events in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland focus on bringing hotel & resort partners from around the world, to meet with AUNZ advisors, and another On Tour event focuses on Cruise partners. The third and final On Tour event is the two-day Destinations event which Treasure refers to as a mini ‘Globetrotting’ and incorporates tourism boards and tour operators.
Last year the Destinations event was launched in Sydney and it will be back in the NSW capital later this year.
Held over two days, the Destinations event features a Travel Advisor appreciation party, which last year was viewed by participants as “hugely successful”, he said, while confirming the same event will be hosted in Melbourne in 2025.
Destinations is followed by Cruise events in late October in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
More exclusive commentary from Treasure in LATTE in coming weeks.
LATTE attended Virtuoso Travel Week as a guest of Virtuoso.
