"FAM trips are not a personal vacation," notes Lorene Romero, founder of Sharp Tongued Consulting. Suppliers invest huge amounts of money, time and work into educating travel professionals on their destinations through FAM trips—and they are excellent opportunities to build itineraries and help sell tours.
We've all seen it happen. A co-worker comes into work storming angry; mouth turned down in a frown; walks through the office without saying hello to anyone; sits down at his desk and starts barking orders to his co-workers; doesn't come out of his office; and when his phone rings he picks it up and bellows out: "Yea?"
As group travel planners, it's our job to empower our group leaders, allowing them to be the star of the show. We do this by working quietly behind the scenes, dotting every "i" and crossing every "t," so their group travel experience will come across as flawless to their tribe of followers.
The # (pound) sign took on a new meaning 10 years ago when designer Chris Messina first tweeted it as a hashtag character, asking his followers how they felt about "using # (pound) for groups." Ever since, hashtags have been used to connect individuals and groups into broader conversations on popular topics and world events.
Earlier this year, I attended the U.S. Travel Association's inaugural Secure Tourism Summit, in New York City. It was a well-thought-out, daylong discussion of possible threats facing our industry, with concrete examples of how to work through a crisis.