It’s been a dazzling week at the brand-new AVA Resort Cancun, where AIC Hotel Group held its Showstopper Awards celebrating top-selling travel advisors in the U.S. and Canada. During their time celebrating these honors, the sizeable group of travel advisors has danced the night away to country and disco music, learned about AVA’s sustainability initiatives, partied poolside, been serenaded by Grammy-award winner Mya and been honored as the best of the best when it comes to booking AIC Hotel Group’s properties.
To really make this year’s awards special—which focuses on 2023 sales—the large gathering of travel advisors was invited to AIC Hotel Group’s newest property in Cancun, the 1,622-room, -suite-, -villa AVA Resort Cancun, with a 2.7-acre AVA Bay pool that will wow your clients (we’ve got a full report on the resort in Recommend’s October issue).
Kicking off the 3-day festivities was a Lights & Lasso Welcome Event that had the advisors donning their cowboy boots and sparkly disco attire, and dancing to top country music hits played by a musical group that was put together solely for this event.
The following day, advisors participated in a serious conversation about sustainability and heard from Ash Tembe, VP of Global Field Sales for AIC Hotel Group, about the group’s upcoming resort openings, including the highly anticipated 141-room UNICO Vallarta (with an anticipated opening in September 2025). Tembe also noted that a slowdown is looming, noting that “every four years, during an election year, travel slows down. We are starting to see prices come down.” He added that AIC is going to survive the slowdown because of their partnership with advisors. “We will continue to focus on the travel advisor,” he said. “We’re going to continue level playing field, meaning everyone gets the same price. This is especially important to leisure sales,” he noted. “We will continue to always match.”
Then came the evening festivities, the Showstopper Awards Dinner & Ceremony, for which travel advisors slipped on their finest attire to accept their awards. The evening included delicious dining—where attendees got to sample food from AVA’s various restaurants—and an awards ceremony that bestowed applause after applause on the top-selling travel advisors (the most awarded of any previous year, by the way).
Awards were given out in several categories (based on number of room nights booked and traveled)—Platinum Amped Agent (the largest group of awardees); Double Platinum Amped Agency and Double Platinum Amped Agent; Triple Platinum Agency and Triple Platinum Agent; Top Five Wedding Selling Agencies, with top honors going to Destination Weddings and Top Five Wedding Selling Agents; Diamond Amped Agency and Diamond Amped Agent; Black Diamond Amped Agency and Black Diamond Amped Agent. The latter went to Island Vows’ Cherie Peninger, who also won the top spot in the Top Five Wedding Selling Agents. In order to get Black Diamond status, Peninger booked at least 500 room nights in 2023. Tour operators such as ALG Vacations and Classic Vacations took home top honors as well.
“The Showstopper Awards is the most anticipated event of the year in this industry and we look forward to honoring and celebrating our top travel partners as they are a huge part of our success,” said Ash Tembe, VP of Sales and Marketing at AIC Hotel Group. “This event is not only a testament to [advisors’] hard work and dedication to our brands, but also our way of thanking them with an entire weekend of fun celebratory activities, including a surprise performance by award winning musical artists.”
AIC Hotel Group Surprises Advisors with Private Mya Concert
To make the awards ceremony unique to AIC and its Hard Rock partnership, DJ Huggies played top hits—from oldies to newbies—for each winning agency and agent. So, one advisor might be dancing to Pitbull as she/he accepted their award while another grooved to Lady Gaga as she/he posed for the camera. Topping off the evening was a private concert by Mya that had everyone dancing the night away.
