{"id":2275,"date":"2018-09-05T18:27:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T01:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2018-09-03T18:31:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T01:31:48","slug":"getting-a-start-on-travel-season-with-virtuoso-travel-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/2275\/getting-a-start-on-travel-season-with-virtuoso-travel-week","title":{"rendered":"Getting a Start on Travel Season with Virtuoso Travel Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of travel professionals filled massive ballrooms for presentations and combined for over 300,000 meetings. (Photo by Michael Patrick Shiels)<\/p><\/div>\n

Where are you going this fall or for Christmas?<\/p>\n

Virtuoso Travel Week, the industry\u2019s 30th<\/sup>annual massive confab, may be second only to the United Nations General Assembly in terms of a yearly international collaboration. 6,000 attendees from nearly 100 countries discussed luxury hotels, cruise lines, safaris, airlines, tour companies, resort properties and premier destinations in a combined 300,000 meetings between tourism officials and\u00a0Virtuoso.com<\/a>\u2019s elite travel advisors in early August in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe enrich lives through human connection,\u201d said Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch from the stage during the opening ceremony. \u201cIt\u2019s not about what travelers see but rather about how they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virtuoso, the leading global travel agency for experiential travel, released data from more than $40.7 billion in bookings which revealed the most in-demand destinations for this fall and the upcoming holiday season.<\/p>\n

Italy again emerged atop the list, followed by France; South Africa; Israel; and Germany \u2013 a country boasting Oktoberfest in Munich and its intricate countrywide Christmas Markets. If Christmas is for children, Virtuoso cited a You Gov survey showing 77-percent of respondents believe travel is vital in raising their kids. Multi-generational and celebration travel are, therefore, trendy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people are showing their parents photos of, for instance, Iceland and the Galapagos Islands they\u2019ve seen on Instagram and influencing family travel decisions,\u201d said Virtuoso\u2019s global public relations manager Misty Ewing Belles. \u201cChildren use the photos taken during travel to build their personal brand identity on social media sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

31-percent told surveyors they are having difficulty finding fresh, authentic experiences, which is something Virtuoso Travel advisors specialize in. \u201cOur clients are not going to museums, but rather visiting neighborhoods, eating with families and cooking with \u2018Mama,\u2019\u201d said Australian Virtuoso advisor Anthony Goldman. So, in the search for adventure and enrichment, Middle Eastern countries Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and Israel are among the latest \u201chot destinations\u201d experiencing large growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe arranged for a client to have dinner on the rooftop helipad at the St. Regis Abu Dhabi as a stopover during their journey between Kenya and the Seychelles,\u201d Josh Alexander, a Virtuoso advisor from New York, revealed.<\/p>\n

Ewing Belles said some people value travel so much they budget it into their long-range allocations with their financial planners. And Virtuoso Travel advisors are sometimes consulted to plan and book five-year advance travel schedules so families can coordinate dates and secure access to their bucket list dream experiences.<\/p>\n

Two dreamy hotels, each recently renovated and reborn, were among the award-winners at Virtuoso Travel Week. Hotel de Crillon, on Place de la Concorde in Paris, reopened to rave reviews after years of renovation. I once met\u00a0Billy Joel\u00a0while he was smoking a cigar at the hotel bar of the Crillon. When the piano player in the corner took a break, I suggested, via a gesture, that Joel step in at the keyboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will cost you $100,000,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharge it to my room,\u201d I responded.<\/p>\n

Adare Manor, the historic pastoral palace in Limerick, Ireland, reopened last November after being shuttered for a 21-month restoration and refurbishment effort. The iconic property is near Shannon Airport.<\/p>\n

Contact<\/em>\u00a0Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be heard weekdays at\u00a0MiBigShow.com<\/a>. His latest book is \u201cI Call Him Mr. President \u2013 Stories of Fishing, Golf and Life with my Friend George H.W. Bush\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where are you going this fall or for Christmas? Virtuoso Travel Week, the industry\u2019s 30thannual massive confab, may be second… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1019767,1044565,1142,597860,568,998749,1023599],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-morocco","tag-travel","tag-paris","tag-vacation","tag-turkey","tag-virtuoso","tag-egypt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2018\/09\/image13.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}