Ragan Stone, senior vice president of In the Know Experiences, part of the Global Travel Collection (GTC), talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report, at GTC’s ARRIVE conference in Austin, Texas, last month about how her unit fits in with the rest of the GTC luxury host agency. In the Know, which offers bespoke vacation planning, VIP event access (like sold-out concerts and fashion shows), and custom corporate entertainment worldwide, is now where many advisors go to train to become great GTC luxury travel sellers. For more information, visit www.globaltravelcollection.com.

Katie Williams, chief operating officer and co-founder of Tern, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about how her company has become so successful in just three years, with its products and services adopted by many of the big agency consortia and host agencies. Tern is an all-in-one, cloud-based software platform built specifically for travel advisors and travel agencies that is designed to replace the patchwork of separate tools (CRMs, itinerary builders, commission trackers, email, spreadsheets) that advisors traditionally juggle. And now Tern is using AI to make it even easier for advisors to accomplish all these tasks so they can focus on selling travel. For more information, visit www.tern.travel.

Josh Stevens, senior vice president of strategy and growth for Global Travel Collection, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report at last month’s GTC ARRIVE conference in Austin, Texas. Stevens says GTC is seeing incredible growth in average daily rate across all GTC hotel bookings, with sales up nearly 10 percent in the luxury corporate, luxury leisure and entertainment segments. Demand of for luxury travel keeps going up in all segments, although Steven notes cruise sales are up nearly 20 percent for luxury ocean, river and yacht categories. For more information, visit www.globaltravelcollection.com.

Adrian Rubio, expedition leader on HX Expeditions’ MS Roald Amundsen, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report on the ship’s cruise to Alaska, featuring unique ports of call and amazing scenery throughout. Rubio describes how HX delivers a very different kind of Alaska cruise, combining incredible scenery, wildlife viewing and interaction with locals. For more information, visit www.travelhx.com.

Bram Olaf van Spriel, captain of the MS Roald Amundsen talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report on an expedition cruise to Alaska last month. Captain van Spriel tells us about the features of this still-new vessel, powered by a hybrid propulsion system, and why it is a popular option for guests seeking comfort along with the thrills of discovery. For more information, visit www.travelhx.com.

Adrianne Calvo, special guest celebrity chef at Salterra, the brilliant year-old resort in South Caicos, talks with Amy Tate of Insider Travel Report about the food she prepared for guests during her mini residency at the resort. It’s all part of a Salterra program to host guests chefs that provide great culinary experiences for clients. For more information, visit www.salterra.com.

Nicholas Huss, CEO of HBX Group, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about his company’s annual MarketHub Americas, which took place in the Dominican Republic earlier this month. One of three MarketHubs that HBX holds every year, the America’s edition focused on the issues affecting travel today, including AI in a big way. Huss details what HBX is all about as a bed bank and more for travel advisors and other industry players and gives us an update on what the future holds for the company. For more information, visit www.hbxgroup.com.

Chris Dane, president of Hickory Global Partners business travel consortium, now owned InteleTravel, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report, about being recognized by ASTA as the winner of the Barbara O’Hara Advocacy Award for his long support of travel advisors, travel agencies and ASTA itself. Industry veteran Dane has been a supporter of advisor causes for more than four decades even as he held different executive posts in the travel industry, including more than 20 years with American Airlines. For more information, visit www.asta.org.