Making News in Orlando

December 11, 2012

For NTA members, Travel Exchange is a source of new business connections. But for the trade journalists who cover the event—and their readers—the event is a source of news.

"Travel Exchange is a superb opportunity for Travel Market Report on several fronts," said Robin Amster, contributing editor for the online publication. "Several of the sessions [listed below] promise to be good stories. It’s also a chance to network and meet the industry’s players because there’s no substitute for that personal, face-to-face interaction."

Following the 2010 NTA Convention in Montréal, David Cogswell wrote in TravelPulse.com that he found the event to be not only beneficial for business, but for the industry, too. "I love the gigantic buzz that is generated by conferences, as well as the explosion of collective energy that is ignited when you gather large numbers of people together around a shared set of beliefs and objectives," Cogswell wrote. "That was certainly true of NTA’s annual gathering."

Amster, Cogswell and other journalists will find Travel Exchange to be a ripe with insights and information about travel trends, product development and specialty markets:

• Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Faith Tourism Leaders Forum, NTA will again bring together a broad collection of professionals experienced in faith-based travel. The Sunday session already has more than 150 participants. (Click here to see an earlier Miami Herald story on this market.)
• New this year is a leaders forum that combines two markets. The Family Travel & Adventure Tourism Leaders Forum on Tuesday will be highlighted by Nancy Schretter of The Family Travel Network, who said that families are one of the fastest-growing parts of the adventure travel market. "I’ll be discussing the demographics and psychographics of family travelers, how to connect with them,and what all of this means for product development," she said.
• Another Tuesday event that will generate news is the Hispanics in Travel Caucus, a result of the NTA-ASTA Hispanic Business Development Task Force (introduced at Convention ’11.) To read about the program’s first session, conducted at ASTA’s annual conference, click here. For more information email NTA HQ.
• Finally, another program making news is the NTA Young Professionals group, which will hold its first meeting in a town hall format on Sunday afternoon. This important part of our industry’s future already gained attention when the NTA Board of Directors hosted a group of young professionals at a recent meeting. Read about that session here, and follow NTA’s new group on Twitter: #NTAyp.

To see where you can catch news as it happens during Travel Exchange, consult the main schedule and education lineup.