Virtuoso Week | August in sunny Las Vegas

On Friday night, I'm headed to Las Vegas for my eleventh Virtuoso Week (first known as Travel Mart and then Travel Week). I'm definitely not going for the weather which can range from very hot to stiflingly hot. Rather, this is a chance for me and my team to meet with representatives of two thousand luxury travel providers including hotels, tour companies, cruise lines, and more, at meetings held both at Bellagio and Aria.

While I'm just spending the weekend and will be back in the office Monday morning, two members of Team Ourisman will be meeting (from Monday through Thursday) with hundreds of reps for 4-minute appointments ("speed dates") and longer 10-minute meetings specifically set up in advance. Jessica is a Virtuoso Week veteran, while this will be Angela's first time. Virtuoso Week is invaluable for luxury travel advisors; it's an opportunity to learn about new properties and meet with old friends to find out about the latest offers, promotions, and enhancements.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and two of my own travel photographs will be on display for the annual Virtuoso Advisor Photo Contest. I'm very excited by this honor, as there are thousands of entries, and the photos seem to keep getting better year after year. As you may know, I'm an avid travel photographer. In fact, I look at travel as an excuse to take photographs. You can see my two "winners" here and here... two thousand words worth of memories this past year in London and Dubai.

By the way, look for me at the 22-second mark of the You Tube video!

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Virtuoso Travel Week | Aug 11-17

This video expresses what Virtuoso Travel Mart Week is all about. The name has changed, but the basic idea remains the same — networking. Thousands of luxury travel consultants spend a week together with perhaps one thousand reps from five star hotels and resorts, cruise lines, tour companies, onsites, and specialty suppliers. Reps tell travel consultants what's new about their products, and travel consultants are basically shopping on behalf of our clients. Everyone always want to know about the most exciting new hotels and exotic travel destinations.

With literally 24 hours of 4-minute appointments over four days (we call it "speed dating"), Virtuoso Travel Week is an exhausting but worthwhile experience. Rick Baron of Tauck Tours may have overstated the case in the video… or, this may actually be the case with extraverts! In his experience, "Instead of being completely exhausted, I think we come back enthused, energetic, rejuvenated and energized."

Honestly, I do come home exhausted. My first year, I even had nightmares for several weeks — endless lines of people coming by and talking to me. Virtuoso Travel Week is an assault on the senses, but it's so valuable, I do it anyway.

Where do you want to go next? Let me know, and I go shopping for you at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas.


Virtuoso Travel Week (search here on Google)


copyright (c) 2012 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website. .

Travel Mart 2011 | Aug 15-19

Thousands of Virtuoso travel consultants and suppliers will soon descend on Las Vegas and its sweltering August heat for the 2011 edition of Travel Mart. Meeting at the Bellagio Hotel, days are filled with educational opportunities, hundreds of appointments with vendors, as well as countless cocktail parties and dinners.

The picture above really captures the scale of Travel Mart. Cavernous (and refrigerated) ballrooms are filled with round tables like those pictured. Agents are assigned to one particular table throughout the four days of meetings, usually paired up with another agent from the same agency. A different representative from a hotel, tour company, or other Virtuoso supplier comes by every four minutes for what we affectionately refer to as a "four minute speed date." A lot of information is passed, but - more significantly - relationships are developed. When you want an upgrade at a certain hotel, or have special requests, your Virtuoso travel consultant draws on these relationships to try to get your request granted!

See this YouTube video for a flavor of Travel Mart!




Virtuoso travel consultant (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2011 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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Virtuoso Travel Mart 2009 | Aug. 16-20

Why would thousands of luxury travel consultants travel to Las Vegas in the middle of August? Why take part in a week of meetings, formal and informal, with reps from hundreds of luxury hotels and cruise lines? Why deal with the exhaustion and overload from four consecutive days spent filled with six hours daily of four-minute appointments (a.k.a. speed dates) with supplier representatives?

It's time for Travel Mart, the annual Virtuoso trade show. Virtuoso is the biggest name in the luxury hotel market with over 800 hotels and resorts around the world, each one offering Virtuoso clients the best rates along with complimentary amenities including free daily breakfast for two, room upgrades if available, and valuable extra perks. But Virtuoso is more than just a source of the best luxury values for upscale travelers. It's about connections with top industry reps.

Next week is an exhausting but immensely worthwhile opportunity for Virtuoso travel consultants to network with the world's top luxury travel suppliers. It will help them learn about new products, deepen their knowledge of what's available in the luxury travel universe, and form relationships with the people who can help them deliver for clients by...

• securing room upgrades
• taking care of special needs and requests
• finding space in what may seem like a totally booked hotel

So, if your travel consultant isn't immediately available next week, count yourself lucky. The week that she or he is investing at Travel Mart is all about helping you get the most from your future travels.

Virtuoso travel consultant (search here on Google)


copyright (c) 2009 by David J. Ourisman. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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