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Travel Weekly
4 days ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
American Marketing Group says business rebounded after Q1 slowdown
ORLANDO -- After a "spectacular year" in 2024, American Marketing Group and its four agency brands experienced a slowdown at the end of the first quarter of 2025. But that slowdown has already turned around, according to chief marketing officer Nicole Mazza. "I can tell you as quick as we went into it, we came out of it," Mazza said on stage June 5 during the group's Travel Market conference at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort here. "Business is back, and business is soaring." American Marketing Group is home to travel agency network Travelsavers, which has a presence in the U.S. and Canada; the Network of Entrepreneurs Selling Travel (NEST), a network for home-based agencies; and the Affluent Traveler Collection, a network of luxury-focused advisors. Together, those brands represent 25,000 travel advisors. In 2024, 102 agencies joined those brands, representing $279 million in preferred-supplier sales. From January to May of 2025, Mazza said, 47 new agencies have joined, representing $196 million in preferred supplier sales. "2024 was a spectacular year coming off of two extremely strong years," Mazza said, adding that 2025 is looking "equally as strong" despite the slowdown at the end of Q1. "I'm extremely bullish. Hopefully you are in your business, as well," she said. For agencies with a less optimistic outlook, Mazza recommended connecting with peers who are thriving to find out what's working for them. What's hot in 2025 Mazza also highlighted some trends on which to capitalize. She shared leading destinations by type of travel. For guided tours, the most popular destinations are Ireland, Italy, France, Greece, Croatia, Spain and Portugal. The most popular sand-and-sun markets are Cancun, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Aruba. (Cancun and Dominican Republic, she said, have always been dominant.) For cruising, the top destinations are Antarctica, the Arctic and Alaska. While Alaska was a little soft last year, it's strengthening in 2025, she said. For FIT travelers, topping the list are Japan, Vietnam, Columbia and Africa. In terms of demographics, multigenerational and skip-gen travel (where grandparents travel with grandchildren) remain popular, Mazza said. Millennials and Generation X particularly value multigenerational travel. Mazza is also tracking a surge in demand for solo travel. Google has seen a 300% increase in searches for solo travel, she said, noting that people want to travel alone, but in a secure way. A number of supplier partners have developed products around solo travel, which she encouraged advisors to explore. Cruising continues be popular, especially with a number of new products, Mazza said. It's easy to get first-time cruisers to repeat once they've cruised, she said. Mazza encouraged advisors to promote Arctic and Antarctic cruises to their more adventurous travelers. There is also strong demand for set-jetting, or traveling to places featured in films and television shows like "Yellowstone," "Black Panther" and "The White Lotus." She noted suppliers are building products around the trend. Finally, most everyone knows the term FOMO, or "fear of missing out." But how many know the term JOMO, Mazza asked? It stands for "joy of missing out," or those travelers who want to go on vacation and relax. They're not interested in sharing pictures on Instagram, but want to unplug.
Travel Weekly
12-05-2025
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Positive data points for advisors
Jamie Biesiada There is a lot of uncertainty right now, including about the economy, consumer confidence, global geopolitical unrest and beyond. "Wait and see" is becoming a common phrase as to what the remainder of the year holds. And, as the survey Travel Weekly conducted in March seeking advisor input found, agencies were across the board in terms of concerns and impacts felt. For some, business was booming. Others were fielding cancellations and concerns from uneasy clients. Many fell somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. We're fielding another survey to get a pulse on how business is now, two months after that survey, but in the meantime, here are some encouraging numbers about 2025 sales for advisors. Travelsavers' sales are up Travelsavers recently released some sales statistics that paint a nice picture for 2025, following what was a very strong year in 2024. Sales are up in a number of categories: premium ocean cruising (21%), river cruising (15%), contemporary ocean cruising (13%), luxury cruising (5%), guided vacations (11%), fun-and-sun vacations (5%) and FIT travel (4%). "I am super bullish on this business and believe 2025 is going to end strongly," Travelsavers chief marketing officer Nicole Mazza said in a release. "Travelers are booking for the festive season and into next year. 2026 is already off the charts with double-digit growth." Mazza did acknowledge the challenges 2025 has brought, like consumer confidence and inflation, but said, "After 55 years, we're not strangers to industry challenges." Europe travel will still increase this year Allianz recently released some stats on summer travel to Europe. Based on bookings, for the fourth year in a row, U.S. summer travel to Europe will increase, this year by 10%. The boom in Europe travel started in 2022, when Allianz found it was up 600% (pandemic blues were a likely culprit). U.S. travel to Europe has since increased, albeit at a more gradual pace, rising 55% in 2023 then 34% in 2024. While this year's increase might be small by comparison, it's still an increase, and that bodes well for advisors. The top five destinations, as reported by Allianz, in order: London, Paris, Dublin, Rome and Edinburgh, Scotland. This year, Edinburgh and Rome swapped positions, with Rome edging out the Scottish capital for spot No. 4. Name this newsletter As a reminder, I'm running a small contest to rename this eletter. I'll be keeping the survey open for another week or two, so please submit some ideas. I'll send the winner a selection of local goods from the small Jersey Shore town where I live.
