A Selfie Tour of the World Travel Market: Equipped with the very best smartphone available, the Inbound Report’s intrepid editor-in-chief, Jake Steinman, visited a number of booths and took photos of delegates in front of him, to his side and over his shoulder as he demonstrated through a variety of expressions just how flexible the human face is. Along the way, he also gathered occasional news bytes, which found space in some of the captions that follow.

 

 

At the Smart Destinations booth:  Lori Timony (right), vice president, channel sales and strategic accounts: and Tara Didi, New York City regional manager, expanding their Smart Card to UK operators.

 

Representing Big Bus Tours at the big trade show are Gisel Vidals, head of national trade sales, USA; and David Falsetti, senior sales manager, New York.

 

In front of the AlliedTPro booth with Mark Morello (right) and Marc Haeni, director of international sales & business development at Kuoni Destination Management USA, who had several of their appointments from Western Europe delayed due to fog.

 

Steinman appears to “Experience the Ride” virtually while visiting with the company’s president, Dan Rogoski, and Renee Wilson, director of tour and travel.

 

WOW Air’s Engilbert Hafsteinsson, vice president, sales and marketing; and Sigridur Erlendstottir, regional manager for Wow Air, the Reykjavik, Iceland-based carrier that offers fares to the USA as low as $99 from 11 European destinations.

 

Also from WOW Air, Svana Fridriksdottirr, vice president, communications, made the rounds visiting booths in the USA pavilion, promoting the company’s low-cost flights to connecting destinations.

 

Despite the best efforts of our editor-in-chief to obscure them, Ashley Ciora, vice president of travel industry sales at the Greater Palm Springs CVB and Hubertus Funke, San Francisco Travel’s director of international tourism, Europe & Latin America, manage to squeeze themselves into this selfie.

 

At the Travalco booth, we found Peter Van Berkel—he’s been president of the company for 30 years—with his sister Mariane. Van Berkel told us that has hired Travalco hired Stacy Cohen, who was laid off last May from AlliedTPro after more than 25 years  with the company (and its predecessor, Allied  Tours) as its new market manager in New York and Karen Omojola, based in Las Vegas, who is new market manager for the West Coast.

 

Managing a shy, half-smile in this selfie is Hercules Zeris, long-haul product manager for Riviera Travel, Staffordshire, UK.

 

We had to rush this one, as the Tui Destinations Services—now split off from Hotelbeds— booth was very busy.

 

There was some trade talk with Nick Evans (left) a new-media-in-general consultant, and Doug Armstrong lifestyle and travel vlogger, whose work is popular on YouTube. Both are with Vida Digital.co.uk.

 

All things Elvis were on display during a current, long-running exhibit—“Elvis at theO2”—at London’s O2 Centre, aided by Graceland. And, despite a nearby concert on the same night (Wednesday) by U2, the Elvis program, sponsored by the Memphis CVB, attracted a substantial crowd.

 

Peter Yeswawich, vice chairman of MMYG Global, and a popular speaker and presenter at travel industry events, moderates a trivia contest that held the interest of the delegates who attended.

 

Anna Jackson and Tim Fisher display the tattoo work they received at a booth in the India Pavilion; the work is of a temporary nature.

 

With two of the Tourico Holidays team: Dermot Quigley, executive vice president of global product development at Tourico’s parent company, Travel Holdings; and Lauren Volchev, Tourico’s executive vice president of global sales, who was promoted to the post in September discussing their “Convincing the Unconvinced” strategy.

 

With Oscar Perez, general manager of City Tours Maine, the New England Branch of the northern New Jersey-based receptive tour operator, City Tours. Perez told us that the operation is rebranding itself, changing its name to Creative Tours.

 

 

Longtime fashion maven Kathy Anderson, president of Anderson Retail Tourism, her own Scottsdale, Arizona marketing firm, was in London representing America’s Premier Shopping Places, which has more than two dozen locations in 13 states in the USA.

 

Yeehaw! From the Fort Worth CVB, there are (left to right): Estela Martinez-Stuart, director of tourism; Bob Jameson, president and CEO; and Jessica Christopherson, director of public relations. Fort Worth is hosting The NAJ Group’s next Active America-China Summit March 16-18, 2016.

 

Lori Harnois, executive director of Discover New England since August 2014, was previously state tourism director for New Hampshire. (Note free product placement in this photo.)

 

Cathy Keefe, media relations manager for US Travel, meets with Nigel Thompson, travel editor for the Daily Mirror, to discuss what’s new for IPW 2016 in New Orleans.

 

Enjoying the selfie moment with Linda McMahon, director of group sales, Daytona Beach CVB, which will be the official WiFi sponsor at the RTO Summit in Orlando.

 

Nick Hentschel, vice president, business development, AmericanTours International (ATI) and the potential heir apparent to take over direction of the company from his mother, Noel Irwin-Hentschel, tells Inbound Report’s editor-in-chief that demand has resulted in increased departures for their Western US Air tour program

 

Sevil Arnavutiglu-Le, regional director West Coast, Hotelbeds, explaining to Rafael Villanueva, senior director of international sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority that although Hotelbeds is on the block, there will be no changes in the foreseeable future

 

Robert V. Graff, vice president of marketing for Las Vegas-based Papillion Group, holding court with a group from Spain who listen to his explanation of new air products that his company is launching to the Grand Canyon.

 

Tom Kiely, executive vice president, tourism, San Francisco Travel, takes a brief break between meetings to say hello.

 

Cynthia Schmitt, director, international tourism sales at Citadel Outlets in Los Angeles, told us that the its parent company, Craig Realty Co., has just purchased the Barstow, Calif. outlet center 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles and is renaming it “Oulets at Barstow.”

 

A last stop—at the Philadelphia CVB booth for a chat with Svetlana Yazovskikh, senior international tourism sales manager and a major reason for the city’s increased profile with overseas visitors.