Latest news with #JamieBiesiada
Travel Weekly
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Travel Weekly
A tunnel to Epic Universe? How Boring!
Jamie Biesiada Last month, rumors began to swirl that Universal Orlando Resort was in early talks with Elon Musk's Boring Co. to create an underground network of transport tunnels along International Drive. It would connect Universal's Orlando properties, its original campus and the new campus housing Epic Universe, cutting down on I-Drive traffic and offering Universal guests a quicker way to get around. While neither party has confirmed anything, the tunnel system would reportedly be similar to the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop: Teslas would transport passengers to various stops along the network. Universal already has measures in place to help traffic flow to and from Epic Universe, with its massive elevated loop outside the park that includes dedicated bus lanes, but any additional time-saving innovations could mean a world of difference to park guests who want to cram as much as possible into a day. I asked several travel advisors about whether Universal guests are concerned with the amount of time it takes to travel between parks. Most guests don't complain about it. Beci Mahnken, owner of MEI-Travel, said clients tend to accept the transportation time as part of the experience at Universal. (Farther down the road at Disney, buses are also de rigueur for many transportation routes, though they don't leave Disney-owned property.) Sara Newbury, an advisor with Travel Leaders -- Galaxy Travel, said her Universal and Disney guests are more likely to complain about the wait time it takes for a bus to appear. This could be solved with tunnels: The Boring Co. reportedly said in 2023 that the average wait time for Las Vegas passengers was less than 10 seconds. It could even become a selling point, Newbury said. "Time is money, and nowadays it seems we have to protect both more than ever before," she said. But there's another factor that's perhaps even more intriguing: Could underground tunnels and Teslas be themed to provide some entertainment along the way, a la the Hogwarts Express between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida? The short answer is yes, but not without challenges. Both advisors I spoke with pointed to a host of potential environmental problems in Florida: soil conditions, the high water table, hurricane considerations and sinkholes. It could be, in Mahnken's words, "enormously complex and costly." "However, with advances in engineering and technology happening all the time, it's exciting to imagine that such innovative transportation solutions could become more feasible," Mahnken said. "Universal and other theme parks are always looking for ways to elevate the guest experience, so creative ideas like this definitely have potential down the road." Universal certainly has enough intellectual property that could be a springboard for a themed drive. "The Fast & Furious" franchise immediately comes to mind. Or, to keep interpark connections consistent, the loop could connect Universal's various Harry Potter-themed lands like the Hogwarts Express does between the original two parks today. Maybe Arthur Weasley's Ford Anglia could take parkgoers for a whimsical drive. Or the Teslas could be modeled into the carriages that take Hogwarts students from the train station in the nearby village of Hogsmeade to the school. (As for the conundrum of which guests would see the magical creatures, called Thestrals, "pulling" the carriages, I'll leave that to Universal Creative.) I've hoped for themed transportation between Epic Universe and its Orlando sisters since the park was announced in 2019. Whether it's in the form of electric vehicles or something else entirely, Universal has an epic (sorry!) world of possibilities.
Travel Weekly
22-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Trade Secrets After Dark: Travel advisor advocacy, travel mishaps and favorite cocktail recipes
Subscribe now using your favorite service: Welcome to Trade Secrets After Dark, a new series from Trade Secrets co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada. While the Trade Secrets Tech Summit is still ongoing, enjoy the occasional "After Dark" episode, featuring casual chats -- and drinks -- with guests from around the travel industry. This week, ASTA's vice president of advocacy, Jessica Klement, joins the show. Find out her beverage of choice, hear a cautionary travel tale and learn all about ASTA's advocacy efforts (plus, get the ins and outs of lobbying; it isn't about coyly passing out money to congressional staffers in a Washington, D.C. alleyway -- that's illegal!). This episode was sponsored by National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions. Further resources ASTA on the web Email Jessica Klement Mentioned on this episode Get in touch! Email us: tradesecrets@ Theme song Sweeter Vermouth by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License See for privacy information.
Travel Weekly
14-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Trade Secrets Tech Summit: Approach Guides
Subscribe now using your favorite service: This season, Trade Secrets is hosting the Trade Secrets Tech Summit. Every Monday, co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada will feature a different travel technology company that works with travel advisors. A representative from the featured company will begin with a 5-minute elevator pitch to tell advisors about their product, followed by a 15-minute Q-and-A with the hosts. This week's featured company is Approach Guides, represented by founder and chief marketing officer Jennifer Raezer. Trade Secrets is using Host Agency Reviews' list of technology providers as a basis for this season. If a technology company doesn't have a profile, advisors are encouraged to send a link to the hosts to be added to the list. This episode was sponsored by National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions. Further resources Approach Guides on the web Get in touch! Email us: tradesecrets@ Theme song Sock Hop by Kevin MacLeod License See for privacy information.
Travel Weekly
14-07-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Last-minute booking surge and price-drop tool at Fora
Jamie Biesiada The 2025 trend of close-in bookings has continued into the summer. For the past few weeks at Fora Travel in New York, 45% of bookings have been for travel taking place within the month following the booking. "Summer is so last minute," said Fora co-founder Henley Vazquez said. "We had a record month in June. The bookings last week alone, we have millions of dollars booked last week for travel this week. We're just seeing this huge surge of interest in traveling." Domestic travel is growing faster than international travel, she said, but noted that Fora clients are headed "everywhere, and everywhere last minute." Vazquez largely attributed that last-minute trend to the uncertainty in the world, both economically and politically. New price-drop feature at Fora Amid all the last-minute bookings, Fora has introduced a new feature for advisors: a price-drop alert on refundable hotel bookings. Right now, the feature is applicable only to hotel bookings made via GDS, Vazquez said, which make up most of Fora's hotel bookings. Bookings are automatically monitored, and if the price a client is paying changes by more than 5% or $50, the advisor will get an email alerting them to the change. At that point, the advisor can alert their client, Vazquez said. While they could offer to rebook them at the lower rate, she said they could also encourage them to book a better room category with the money saved. So far, the feature has saved Fora clients "hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said. "It's certainly, as a travel advisor, something I would have dreamed of for years to not have a client go out and go, 'Hey, I found this better price now on this room that you booked for me,' which totally erodes trust," Vazquez said. Fora built its price-monitoring technology internally. Vazquez said it offers the host a differentiator from competitors in the leisure travel space. Additionally, she hopes it gives advisors an inroad to close sales faster than otherwise. "It also gives you the ability as an advisor, which is another big bonus, to say to a client -- as I did recently -- 'Yeah, let's go ahead and book this, because if the price changes, it's refundable,'" she said. Given the feature's popularity among Fora advisors, Vazques said price-drop monitoring will likely be built into other systems for other products outside hotels in the future.
Travel Weekly
16-06-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
A look back at predictions past
Jamie Biesiada At the beginning of every year, Travel Weekly dedicates an issue of the paper to predictions of what's to come in the next 12 months. Editors, myself included, take to our keyboards and share what we think are the logical next steps to trends we've been following, sometimes for years. It's a good exercise to take stock of where the industry is and where it might be going. I often use it as an excuse to talk to advisors and agency owners about what they're seeing on the front lines of selling travel; the prior 12 months are usually a good indicator of the next dozen. As a side note, in writing this column, I looked back on some previous Preview issues. In January 2020, I predicted that "the IC community, and the hosts and agencies that support it, face some big challenges in the year ahead and beyond." Even though I was talking about the need to educate new advisors, still a conversation worth having today -- boy, oh boy, I wasn't wrong about that one. This January, I wrote about the trend of normalization that the entire travel industry had been experiencing throughout 2024. The agency community was no exception to that. While the years immediately after Covid were marked by a frenetic pace, the growth started to slow a bit last year. But at the beginning of this year, bookings still looked strong. Now, six months into the year, it's a bit of a mixed bag. A survey we fielded last month found that 57.7% of respondents were experiencing some kind of decrease in bookings (it was a significant decrease for 27.8% of those agents, a slight decrease for the others). Another 31.3% are experiencing an increase in bookings (a significant increase for 12.8% of those surveyed). Ten percent have seen no change. Survey-takers indicated contributing factors to a decrease in bookings include the economy, consumer confidence and price sensitivity. That's not surprising: a lot has happened in the past six months, including the Department of Government Efficiency's reduction of the federal workforce, tariffs and a yo-yoing stock market, which has impacted consumer confidence. It's clear that we've entered a new period in terms of travel trends, one where consumers might be tightening their belts a little. However, history has shown that, regardless of the circumstances, people will travel, albeit in a slightly different manner. Covid was arguably the darkest time for advisors in recent memory as the industry ground to a halt. Relatively quickly, though, agencies started to pivot and offer different kinds of trips, like domestic vacations to national parks. Theme parks also did particularly well. It was a pretty big pivot (remember that word, everyone?), but for many it kept the lights on. The post-Covid boom in travel might have left agents frenzied with call after call from travelers clawing at the walls, but at least it put money in the bank and established a good base of future clients. Now is the time to tap into that base and get them thinking about their next trip, even if it's not an all-out, bucket-list vacation. As for Preview 2026, I'd hesitate to make any early predictions. We still have another six months to get through, and who knows what awaits us in the second half of the year. It's probably safe to say, though, that advisors will still be putting in the work, serving clients and keeping the world moving.
