HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — It’s a warm, crisp Friday afternoon at the beach here, but Jennifer Kellum, owner of Neverland & Main Travel, isn’t on that beach. Instead, she’s at the Diplomat Beach Resort, where the ballroom is buzzing.
More than 300 people, many of them travel advisors generating at least $1 million in annual sales, are with him at the Global Travel Marketplace (GTM), engaging in six-minute, speed-date-like meetings with vendors who represent all types of travel. products, from cruises to spaceflight.
This year’s event drew mostly advisers amid metamorphoses: Many have recently started their own businesses or are trying to restructure their agencies for the post-pandemic era, according to Jacqueline Hurst, director of recruiting and commercial engagement for Travel Weekly Events (GTM is produced by Northstar, parent of Travel Weekly Travel Group).
That’s why Kellum is here, at Booth 54, sitting with a new salesperson every six minutes. It is navigating a rebranding and trying to shift from selling theme park vacations to luxury travel. She began her career in 2014 exclusively selling Disney at a theme park-focused agency before launching her own business in 2017. She started small by selling what she knew best, but she said that he was burying himself.
“Disney will keep you busy all day … but what I learned was that we weren’t growing with our customers,” she says. Clients came to her for Disney but went elsewhere for a river cruise or a trip to Alaska. “We wanted to evolve with our customers’ vacation needs and wanted to be their one-stop shop.”
Kellum began shifting her business to offer more luxury travel in 2019 by reaching out to other agents for supplier recommendations.
Then she wanted to rename her agency, but the pandemic hit and she feared the change would give clients the impression that her business was financially unstable. “It just wasn’t a good look at the time.”
Highlights from the Global Travel Marketplace
Now that demand for travel has revived, she is all set to introduce a luxury arm to her agency, Aire Luxury Travel. Before she does that, she’s looking to find more vendors she can trust to take care of her customers.
The buzzer rings and Kellum exchanges business cards with Erick Garnica, associate vice president of global leisure sales for Palm Beaches Florida, with resorts in a dozen Florida cities.
After asking him a few questions, she thinks one of his resorts would work for a client’s group of 21 travelers, and her eyes widen. The group includes three generations from five families spread across the country: grandfathers love golf, grandmothers and mothers love spas and need beaches for children.
“That’s why I came here,” Kellum says as she puts her pen down on the table. “We wanted to check a lot of boxes.”
This meeting probably saved her a whole day of searching, she adds as she turns to greet the next salesperson who quickly sat down in front of her as the timer resets.
Morgan Graybill, owner of Morning Star Luxury Travel in Greenville, SC, meets with a supplier at the Global Travel Marketplace in Hollywood, Fla. Photo: TW Photo by Andrea Zelinski
Some agents have other agendas. Next in line is Morgan Graybill, a luxury travel consultant from Greenville, SC. It sits at her desk, complete with a silver table with peacocks lined up, which she hopes vendors will remember her for.
There are many things she is looking for at this conference: a French destination specialist, a golf specialist and a yacht supplier in Croatia; plus, she wants to reconnect with the cruise suppliers she sells to.
But what she is equally focused on is their level of service.
Graybill launched her luxury agency, MorningStar Luxury Travel, after the Covid hit. Starting a new business was difficult, she says, but it’s starting to take off. A supplier may have a great product, she adds, but if they are poor communicators, she won’t do business with them.
“Luxury isn’t just the glitz and the glitz. It’s the service,” Graybill says, citing long vendor hold times driven by labor issues. Other suppliers have been poor communicators, she adds, hindering her ability to offer her clients luxury services. “I can’t afford to be mentally exhausted,” Graybill says.
