Travel Professionals International (TPI) welcomed over 200 of its travel advisors and their guests, preferred partners, and staff, to the company’s 2015 annual conference at the Melia Marina Varadero last month.

With a theme of ‘New Heights’, attendees were invited to challenge themselves and their expectations of what their TPI business can achieve.

“As my team and I think about where we’ve been and where we want to go, we celebrate our successes, learn from our challenges, and look forward to a renewed focus,” said Morris Chia, TPI President and CEO.

Chia outlined the company’s three key strategies that will take TPI to ‘New Heights’ in its current fiscal year ending July 31 – growth of its advisors’ travel sales and margins, retention of its existing advisors through continuous enhancement of its services and systems, and recruitment of only highly qualified advisors.

As the keynote speaker for TPI’s annual conference, Bruce Poon Tip, Founder of G Adventures, took the assembled group on an impassioned and emotional journey through his views on philanthropy, relationships, and business – combined to become “social enterprise” – and challenged TPI’s travel advisors to remember that, “people used to buy products from brands. Now they buy products from people.”

“It was my pleasure to spend time with TPI advisors who are clearly engaged and excited by the opportunities that social enterprise can provide to them and their clients,” said Poon Tip.

The TPI annual conference was made possible by the support of its presenting partners, Transat and Melia Hotels International, and its platinum partners, Allianz Global Assistance, Air Canada, and G Adventures, among others.

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