{"id":971,"date":"2023-11-15T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T10:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/?p=971"},"modified":"2024-04-02T13:58:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T13:58:50","slug":"direct-travel-leisure-advisors-gathered-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/direct-travel-leisure-advisors-gathered-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Travel leisure advisors gathered in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Direct Travel advisors, management and the majority of its strategic suppliers convened November 14 to 16 in Chicago at the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile to network, learn and foster relationships. This was the first North American leisure conference for Direct Travel and the event saw over 300 attendees,\u00a0<\/span>with fully half from Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a huge success and a real win for both our team and our suppliers,\u201d said Stephen Smith, Senior Vice President, Leisure Strategy & Marketing, adding that top partners present included Oceania, Silversea and Allianz.\u00a0 \u201cHuman connection is a big part of our business, and it was great to get everyone in one place, with over 3,500 face-to-face meetings facilitated over the span of two days.\u201d There were also professional development sessions focused on simplification, efficiency and growth as travel advisors.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Awards Gala on Wednesday night, Direct Travel launched its expanded GEM recognition program which distinguishes top leisure producers. \u201cOf the nearly 1,000 Direct advisors across North America, 130 were awarded GEM status for 2022-23 \u2013 an impressive achievement,\u201d said Gerard Bellino, EVP Leisure at Direct Travel.<\/p>\n

The conference wrapped with a Give Back event at Project C.U.R.E to help fill a shipping container with supplies for a medical facility in Africa. \u201cWe were so delighted to partner with A&K Philanthropy to facilitate this opportunity to help those in need.\u00a0 Project C.U.R.E. does some incredible work and it was so great to see everyone contributing and working together,\u201d said Rene Schneeberger, SVP, Supplier Relations at Direct Travel, who also sits on the DEI committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conference was so well received that we are already planning the 2024 event,\u201d says Smith, \u201cAnd are confident it will be as great a success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Direct Travel advisors, management and the majority of its strategic suppliers convened November 14 to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,5,7,6,2,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advisors","category-agencies","category-culture","category-diversity","category-featured","category-hosting","category-latest","category-top-stories"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"elegant-magazine-featured":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"elegant-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-720x380.jpg",720,380,true],"elegant-magazine-medium-small":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/DirectAccess2023-GiveBack-50x50.jpg",50,50,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Stephen Smith"]},"category_info":"Advisors<\/a> Agencies<\/a> Culture<\/a> Diversity<\/a> featured<\/a> Hosting<\/a> Latest<\/a> TOP STORIES<\/a>","tag_info":"TOP STORIES","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}