TORONTO — Team Air New Zealand emerged victorious in a cricket match with Team Goway at Goway Travel’s annual event, held yesterday at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club.
But the 21st annual cricket match also served as the inaugural meeting of Goway’s Travel Advisory Board, giving board members a chance to meet and mingle with Goway’s senior leadership team and destination specialists.
A beautiful day for a friendly match
Earlier in the day, the board — which consists of 10 travel advisors and consortia heads from Canada and the U.S. — got down to business.
This year, Goway is celebrating 55 years in the travel business. The idea behind the board is to bring industry experts together from different areas to “ensure that we can be in business for another 55 years,” Renee Stanton-Defaria, director of sales for Goway Travel, told Travelweek.
“In order to do that, we need to ask our customers what they need from us. So that’s where that idea developed from,” she said.
“We have subject experts really across all facets. Some are newer to the industry, some are veterans, and then others have been on the wholesale side and are now on the supplier side.”
The plan is for the board to meet twice a year.
At the inaugural meeting, they discussed a wide range of topics, such as how to remove barriers for travel advisors and create a more frictionless experience for advisors and their clients.
They also discussed “how we can evolve our product to make sure we’re meeting the clients’ demands,” said Stanton-Defaria. “I think that it validated a lot of the things that we were concerned about as an organization, which was wonderful — like, are we going in the right direction? And yes, we are.”
For example, there’s been a dramatic increase in Google searches about solo women travel.
“But to actually hear multiple people in the room say that they have clients that are solo women and there is no one that really services that market from a customized fit way … this is something that we are definitely going to take offline,” said Stanton-Defaria.
While she said technology is going to be “a key part” of Goway’s strategy over the next couple of years, the company’s differentiator will remain the same: service.
Travel Advisory Board members include Dana Empey (BST Vacations), Cathy Evans (Vista Travel), Adolfo Granadillo (Cruise Planners), Jason Hendrick (Ci Azumano Travel), Leila Lavaee (TTAND: Travel Design by Leila), Peg Mellen (Dream Vacations), Suzanne Pitt (Cruise and Tours Unlimited), Sherry Riggs (WorldVia Travel), Terry Vanderlinden (AMA) and Sandra Wesson (TDC).
Goway says the insights from the board, combined with feedback from Goway’s community of travel advisors and globetrotters, will play a significant role in the company’s ongoing innovation and development.
Goway’s Travel Advisory Board members
