The Business of Travel

On episode 3 of this 4-part series we learn how travel can turn to Gold.  Hosts Amy Thiessen and Greg Bell chat with 3-time Gold-medal winning coach of the US Women's Water Polo team, Adam Krikorian.  Adam has a nearly perfect record with the team, and we learn that travel, particularly transformational travel, has been a key ingredient to his success - especially a team retreat to Colorado with 7-days of silence!  Adam Krikorian has been coaching the Senior National US Women’s Water Polo Team since 2009 and has been just about perfect. Team USA has competed in 23 major FINA Championships since his arrival and has come away with Gold in 20 of them. This includes the last 3 Olympic Games, the last 4 FINA World Championships, the 2010, 2014, and 2018 FINA World Cups, and 10 FINA World League Super Final crowns.  As Head coach at UCLA, Krikorian earned National Women's Water Polo Coach of the Year honors five times.  He also received National Men's Coach of the Year honors in 2004 after leading the UCLA men's program to its eighth overall NCAA championship. He guided the women's team to eight national championships, including a string of five consecutive titles.    GBTA’s Sports, Media & Entertainment committee (SME) currently has 20 committee members from high-level positions within the travel community. Our buyers represent many of the leading sports, media and companies in the world, from professional sports teams and leagues, players associations, movie studios, film production companies, music labels, and so on. On the supplier side we also have top reps from the major travel companies from the airlines, lodging, ground transportation. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s largest professional association representing the $1.4 trillion business travel industry. Our global membership includes 9,000-plus business travel professionals from every continent. Collectively, our members directly control more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually, and also represent every facet of the global travel industry marketplace. The goal of the SME podcast is to leave you with up to date insights and relevant, actionable guidance.

As travel restrictions start to open up there are now different disruptions the travel industry is facing. This podcast explores the issues the industry encountered during the pandemic and the new challenges with releasing restrictions and travelers who are now on the move. We welcome Ben Barrocas (IATA - Country Manager – USA & Canada) and Janik Reigate (GTAA-Director Strategic Customer Relationships) to the podcast to share their experiences, challenges and future opportunities.  Their insights help to understand these post-pandemic times and how all of these lessons learned will fuel future improvements in the travel industry. 

Joanna Baskin, Corporate Business Travel and Consortia Director at Posadas Group / Fiesta Americana Hotels & Resorts joined us at the GBTA Conference 2022 – Toronto Podcast Booth to discuss current COVID protocols and their sustainability policies with Debbie Iannaci, head of Global Communications, PR and Research at GBTA.

Victor Paan, Director, Digital Sales & Innovation for Encore Canada, stepped into the GBTA Conference 2022 | Toronto Podcast Booth to discuss the latest and greatest digital technologies that event professionals should be excited about and key takeaways from virtual events with Debbie Iannaci, head of Global Communications, PR and Research at GBTA.

Tom Richardson, Director of Solutions Consulting at Equus Software, joined with Debbie Iannaci, GBTA’s head of Global Communications, Research and PR at GBTA Conference 2022 | Toronto Podcast Booth to discuss the current trends, best ways to manage business travelers, and how to mitigate risk.  

Stephen Goulding, Senior Manager of Corporate Sales at WestJet Airlines, stepped into the Podcast Booth at GBTA Conference 2022 | Toronto with Debbie Iannaci, GBTA’s head of Global Communications, PR and Research, to discuss WestJet’s summer schedule, corporate travel, and what WestJet has done to be named amongst the top 10 safest low-cost airlines for the second year in a row.

Ciaran Delaney, CEO and Founder of Hubli, joins GBTA head of Global Communications, PR and Research, Debbie Iannaci at the GBTA Conference 2022 | Toronto Podcast Booth for a deep dive discussion on the strong correlation between the between the future of work and the future of business travel, how corporations are facilitating more in-person collaboration, and how Hubli is helping travel managers address the increased need for meetings and off-sites.

The tourism industry was hard-hit by the pandemic. As travel ramps back up, however, the industry is faced with another crisis: attracting and retaining its talent, the people who make travel possible around the world every day. In this episode of The Business of Travel, the Canadian Meetings & Events Committee discusses the current issues around the labor shortage in the tourism industry, how meetings and events could be affected moving forward and what we and the industry can do collectively to address the issues.    Hosts Philip Mondor, President and CEO, Tourism HR Canada, and Alison Langford, Workforce Strategist, British Columbia Hotel Association (BCHA) address the labor shortage with guests Abhishek Shaw, Director of Sales Versante Hotel, Vancouver and Rohit Kapur, Director of Sales, Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto.   Additional helpful links include where to find data on employment trends and projections and impacts of COVID on workforce; post-pandemic guidance for employers; and other related articles and ideas.

As the world turns the corner on the pandemic, more business travelers are hitting the road to generate sales, conduct face-to-face meetings,  and attend conferences. But will business travel be the same post-pandemic? This podcast explores what post-pandemic business travel might look like with a particular focus on booking. Tony D’Astolfo, VP of North America for Serko and Chris Ely, Research Director of GBTA explores key findings from the recent survey as well as thoughts on how bookings might change coming out of the pandemic.