Insight Vacations' Cris David and Tourism Spain's Alegria Narvaez in the foreground
Brett Tollman addresses the guests.
2017 Premium and Luxury Gold brochures
Guests take a seat before lunch service and presenations
Insight Vacations is poised and ready for 2017. At a VIP partner luncheon in downtown Toronto last week, the team from Insight were delighted to share product updates and news about what travellers to Europe can look forward to in the coming year.
As one of the most popular destinations for Insight Vacations in the Canadian market, Spain was a feature country and co-host for the afternoon's event. Over the past 2 years there has been a 50% increase in Canadian visitors (over 350,000 of us!) according to Algeria Narvaez, Trade & Travel Manager for Tourism Spain. In 2017 Spain will be included in 9 Insight itineraries.
During his presentation, Cris David, President of Insight Vacations Canada was very candid regarding the fact that 2016 has been difficult for the travel industry. The very negative media reports targeting many destinations has not helped matters. David wants to encourage travellers to focus on the positive. "There are few good reasons to avoid the journey of discovery and travel. This year Insight and its sister companies accompanied more than 800,000 people to Europe without incident.” He explained that Insight works hard to ensure that clients can travel with confidence to their destinations and that safety is of utmost priority. Close communication with destination partners, tour directors and local guides is ongoing in the case of any change to local schedules to minimize any disruption to the tour. "Now more than ever people enjoy the comfort and insurance of travelling in an escorted group."
Guest of honour for the afternoon was Brett Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation. Tollman also spoke about the importance of travel and the force for good that it creates in destinations. The Travel Corporation’s not-for-profit TreadRight Foundationworks to preserve the environment and communities where they operate, and since 2008 has supported more than 35 sustainable tourism projects worldwide. When travelling with Insight on select tours guests will see some of these projects in action. Tollman also wants to encourage those in the travel industry to educate people and to speak about the remarkable places that depend so much on tourism as a core part of their economy.
New for 2017 is the partnership of Insight and and sister company Uniworld Boutique River Cruises offering 9 combinations of journeys by river and road. For example, the new French Connection Luxury Gold tour with Uniworld’s Magnificent Seine river cruise. A 20 page brochure describing all of the combinations will be available later this month.
David concluded by pointing out that across the board in 2017, Europe prices have decreased from 2016 and Insight is also offering early payment discounts.
