Retail Travel Leadership Summit

Despite the financial crisis sweeping the world, the cruise line industry reports mostly full ships and continues to order more.  Is this show of confidence justified?  What is happening to pricing and profits as the cruise lines drive volume to their ships?  Is this approach sustainable?  How will their current survival tactics impact travel retailers?  The panel will tackle these questions and more.

Moderator: James Shillinglaw
Editor-In-Chief
Performance Media Group

Panelist: Maurice M Zarmati
President and CEO
Costa Cruise Lines

Panelist: Steve Tracas
President & C.E.O
Vacation.com

Panelist: Ken Muskat
Vice President, Sales
Royal Caribbean International

The technological revolution that has engulfed the world has resulted in personal information being held in many places.  Many companies use "privacy policies" to declare how this information will be protected and shared. Much personal information, with or without consent, is captured for use in monitoring and analyzing consumer behavior and marketing/sales programs. The panel will discuss these issues as they relate to travel retailing:  who gets personal information, how is it protected, how is it used, what are the risks and rewards?

Moderator: Bob Adams, CTC, Travel Subject Matter Expert, Acxiom Corporation
With more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality, gaming and travel marketing industry, Bob is a travel subject matter expert at Acxiom and a member of Acxiom’s Global Solutions Team. He has served as Executive Vice President of Marketing at Montecito Property Company and Chief Marketing Officer / SVP of Sales & Marketing for ResortQuest International and in senior level marketing positions with Boyd Gaming, Marriott, Sheraton, and Hilton.  Bob has received national gold awards from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International for his marketing work for ResortQuest.  He has presented at several trade conferences, including the Association of Travel Marketing Executives (ATME) and TravelCom Res-Expo.

Panelist: Kevin Mitchell
Chairman
Business Travel Coalition
Panelist: Ellen Bettridge
American Express
Vice President
U.S. Retail Travel Network
Panelist: Patrick Hochstein, CTC
Vice President
North American Sales Travelport

Panelist: David R.B. Collins, CTC
President & CEO
ARC

Probably the biggest issue for retail travel sellers since the commission caps of 1995, this practice is growing in Europe.  When will it arrive in the United States?  What are the implications for travel distributors of moving to a model in which airline content can only be sold for a charge?  How will DOT full-price disclosure rules deal with this when retailers pass on the fees?  Can independent retailing survive a move to pay-for-content?  Is the ultimate goal to force consumers to deal directly with the airlines and finally eliminate the agent?

Moderator:  Mary Ann McNulty, Content Director, ProMedia.travel
For more than 20 years, Mary Ann has documented the transformation of managed travel and meetings in more than 2,000 articles and research reports published in ProMedia.travel's Procurement.travel quarterly magazine, The Beat, Management.travel and The Transnational or earlier in her career in Corporate Travel magazine, Meeting News, Resorts & Incentives and BTN. McNulty also spent six years as editor of StarCite's online news section, producing news, newsletters and marketing content for the start-up meetings technology provider. Recognizing her contributions to the industry, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives honored her with its Professionalism Award in 2000.

Panelist: Tom Cates
Chief Commercial Officer
Amadeus North America

Panelist: Brian Hace
Vice President, Client Services
Carlson Wagonlit Travel—North America

Panelist: Kyle Moore
Vice President, Product Marketing
Sabre Holdings

Panelist:Marc Castro
President & C.O.O.
Castro