Bullish outlooks, innovations and educational enrichment—these were some of the key themes that resonated throughout the general sessions and networking events at American Marketing Group’s Travel Market Conference, held last week at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando.
Nicole Mazza, Chief Marketing Officer, TRAVELSAVERS and NEST, told the audience of network advisors, “The growth that we have seen over the last year has not stopped. I’ll show you some interesting statistics: We welcomed 102 new agency affiliates into our organizations in 2024. What does that represent? An additional $279 million in new Preferred revenue.” Plus, she added, “in 2025 alone, we have an additional 47 new agency affiliates that have joined us, representing $196 million in new Preferred revenue.”
Mazza acknowledged that there was a bit of a slowdown at the end of the first quarter of 2025, pointing to “headlines that disrupted consumer confidence.” But, she quickly added, “as quickly as we went into it, we came out of it. I can tell you the last month, business is back, and business is soaring. I’m extremely bullish.”
This is why we’re all here—to build that bond, to build that growth, to work together in these relationships, to stay connected. — Nicole Mazza
What’s Trending
When it comes to the various vacation segments—cruise, sun destinations, guided vacations, river cruises and FIT—only cruise and guided vacations are down when compared to 2024 within the U.S. market, with river cruises holding pretty steady.
Mazza notes that within the guided vacations segment, the TRAVELSAVERS and NEST network is seeing bookings in Ireland, Iceland and Italy, with “great growth” in Greece and Croatia. Other top sellers are Asia (Japan and Thailand) as well as South Africa.
When it comes to sun destinations, Mexico is always a top seller, says Mazza, with Dominican Republic coming in a healthy second. Antarctica and the Arctic are having their moment when it comes to cruise bookings, and although Alaska was a “bit soft last year,” as Mazza notes, the network is seeing a really strong growth there today.
For FIT vacations, the network is looking to the exotics, such as Japan and Vietnam. “Colombia, down in South America, has come onto our radar, as has Africa,” she says.
Demographics are shifting as well, although multigenerational family groups are still a popular slice of the market. “Younger demographics coming in today, Millennials and Gen Xers, are really valuing multi-generational time. 83 percent genuinely like to spend time together.”
Mazza also points to solo travel as gaining tremendous traction, noting that there’s great opportunity in that segment. One of the most interesting segments that has caught on lately? Set-jetting, or film tourism. Think Yellowstone, Thailand. “We’re seeing really strong demand around these,” notes Mazza. And another one to note is JOMO—Joy of Missing Out. This is when “you get away from it all, unplug. These are clients who don’t want to be Instagramming; they don’t want to be found.”
Use AI to Your Advantage
Throughout the conference, travel advisors heard that AI isn’t something to worry about, rather it’s a tool that can help you save time and free you to do what you love—dream up amazing vacations for your clients.
Says Mazza, “It’s new for travel advisors. They’re not quite sure how to use it, how to build it into their workspace. It’s a little scary for them right now. No different than the birth of the Internet. What’s it going to do to my business? How’s it going to change my business?In fact, this is a phenomenal tool to use as a marketing assistant within their business.”
With that in mind, TRAVELSAVERS and NEST are putting AI tools are the forefront via AI Connect Powered by Toby. Advisors can use it to enhance their marketing efforts and streamline their workflow. Exclusive partner offers are sent directly into the platform, so advisors can build blog posts, social media captions and landing pages faster using real-time promotions. AI Connect recently debuted a Destination Arrival Guide, featuring more than 600 professionally written destination briefs, which are updated regularly. With the Generate with Toby feature, advisors can create guides tailored to client preferences, interests and travel styles. Coming soon: Translation and newsletter tools for multilingual and multi-format content.
For AI Connect, “we’ve actually built in all of our promotions,” says Mazza. “An agency can easily pick up one of our promotions and say, ‘write me a blog, write me an email, write me a letter.’ You can send out a cruise promotion to clients who have never cruised or past clients who have cruised. Stuff that normally takes hours to produce, they can do in less than 30 minutes. If you’re really quick, you can do it in less than five. It’s that easy to use these tools.”
Education Enrichment
Late 2025 will see a major revision to the network’s KORE program, which as Kathryn Mazza-Burney, TRAVELSAVERS Chief Sales Officer and NEST President, noted during the conference, was launched in 2021 to train the next generation of professional traveler advisors. The refreshed curriculum will update topics, create shorter modules and add more interaction through exercises and gamification. Additionally, agencies will also be able to create customized KORE versions for their advisors.
“KORE was our way to train new to industry,” says Mazza-Burney.”It gets them with a mentor within the TRAVELSAVERS and NEST ecosystem and gets them booking under one of those agencies. This relaunch takes the course to the next level. What they’ve asked for, which we didn’t have, was accreditation; for them to be able to customize the platform; and for it to be mobile-friendly.
“When we originally launched KORE, it truly was for those looking to get into the industry. We wanted to make sure they were being trained. We weren’t putting them into agencies without any training. But what we found as we started to launch is there were agents who had been at an agency for five, six, 10 years that were getting burned out. So much was going on, so they weren’t keeping up with what was happening in the industry. So what we see a lot of today are existing agencies that just need a refresher.”
