(A personal journey, of sorts)—Way back in 1964, when I first met Irwin Robinson, founder, editor, and publisher, of Travel Weekly, travel agents were not such popular folk with airline and hotel/resort managements. I think the rallying cry from those sectors was “go direct” or “cut out the middle man”. Only later did the fancier “disintermediate” term come along.

In any case, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, a rapidly growing special interest publisher where I hung my hat as legal counsel and sometime publisher, saw all that as shortsighted economics, and we correctly predicted that travel agency sales would become the backbone of the travel business. Through the acquisition of Robbie’s weekly newspaper, and Hotel & Travel Index, and the launch of the landmark Louis Harris Study on The Volume and Character of the Travel Agency Market, we parlayed our bet on frontline agents into a major publishing enterprise. I was privileged to be Publisher of those travel properties and later President of a Ziff-Davis Division that to this day, under different corporate stewardship, proudly serves that critical cohort of agency marketers.

Today’s Luxury Market in travel was designed for topline, imaginative travel agents, whose need is to stay ahead of the game with insights and action  and technology crafted to these dynamic times in global travel. 

The frontline seller cohort is broader now, with mega online agencies ambitious  to find the right formula for luxury sales , and a much enhanced capability of cruise lines, hotels, resorts and others to have a greater share  in personalized , direct online sales in the luxury sector. 

Today the issues in travel marketing are complex indeed, for agents,  suppliers and other stakeholders.  The winners will certainly  be those who have the marketing intelligence to be 360 degrees in exploiting  their hard earned advantages in  building bonds with customers. Get, Keep, Grow is everyone’s customer mandate. 

It is our promise at Luxury Travel 360 to provide every stakeholder the same vital  information in Research, Tracking Trends, and covering critical issues. But we shall, without fail, be offering relevant special interest content to the frontline world of marketers. 

We take great pride in the fact that Travel Weekly, with old friend and colleague Arnie Weissmann at the content  helm, will be available as Content Colleagues and advisors in the travel agency sector in particular.