Cruise Specialists recently attended the travel industry’s most prestigious conference, Virtuoso’s Travel Mart, which took place August 14-19 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.  During the five-day conference, advisors from Cruise Specialists joined nearly 1,700 other elite travel advisors and more than 1,600 executives and representatives from some of the world’s best travel companies, all of whom belong to the Virtuoso® luxury travel network.  In total, the conference attracted approximately 3,700 attendees – the largest turnout in the conference’s 23-year history – from 90 countries around the globe.

During the conference, travel advisors from Cruise Specialists participated in more than 100 individual four-minute appointments each day with top executives from luxury hotels, resorts, spas, cruise lines, airlines, private jet and yacht companies, tour operators and inbound destination specialists.  The goal of these meetings is to build relationships and glean product and destination knowledge that will lead to better travel experiences for Cruise Specialists’ clients.  More than 300,000 of these individual agency/travel provider appointments took place over the course of four days.

“It was great to see throughout the conference how our cruise and travel partners continually examine the world to find new places for us to explore,” said Cruise Specialists Vice President Greg Nacco who attended Travel Mart. “Nearly every cruise line is incorporating new port stay lengths so our clients can experience the nighttime activities of some of the most idyllic ports and iconic cities in the world.”

As a member of Virtuoso, Cruise Specialists is part of the most prestigious network in luxury travel.  The group produces annual travel sales in excess of $9.6 billion, which leads to more negotiating power within the industry.  For clients of Cruise Specialists that clout translates to VIP treatment, special amenities and privileged access to events.