Nearly 5,000 industry professionals are currently in Las Vegas for Virtuoso Travel Week 2022. This week, 5 journalists from 5 countries are attending the event and TravelPulse is the only Canadian trade media on site.
During the Virtuoso Travel Week General Session, the event's flagship event, which was held on Sunday August 14, the representatives of each market where Virtuoso is present: Una O'Leary (Canada), Karen Joyce (Great Britain ), Irene Lee (Asia), Fiona Dalton (Australia/New Zealand), Javier Arredondo (Latin America and the Caribbean) led a conference under the sign of success and success. Virtuoso is a community that, as of today, encompasses 20,000 agents in 50+ countries across 1,200 agencies working with 2,200+ partners.
"How do you feel about the industry right now?" was the question Virtuoso CEO Matthew D. Upchurch posed upfront. Morale is good, sales are better than ever in almost all segments and projections even indicate that 2023 will be the best year in tourism, ever."
"General sales in 2022 compared to 2019 are 108% higher, and hotel sales 173% higher than 2022 figures, Matthew D. Upchurch predicted to the crowd of 4,300 a "full" recovery in tourism from here Q2 of 2023" and that 2023 will be the best year on record with sales approaching 147%".
Una O'Leary, Managing Director for Canada, is equally excited about what's happening in the travel world and what lies ahead, with one caveat. "The situation at Toronto Pearson airport, which has been declared the worst airport in the world, is a bit like what we are currently experiencing in the travel industry, she told us during an exclusive interview that will air later this week.
"Everyone wants to travel, but there is a lack of arms everywhere. There is a lack of staff in travel agencies, in airports, hotels, restaurants, planes; we are not enough on demand, it is a nice problem, but everyone is adjusting, that's the big challenge for the industry right now, which is doing extremely well, the demand is there, and we, the industry, are trying our best and even more," she explains.
TravelPulse is covering Virtuoso Travel Week all week and an exclusive interview with Una O'Leary and more content will be released in the coming days. Follow us on Facebook and stay tuned so you don't miss a thing.
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