PATH Celebrates 10 Years!

PATH, the Professional Association of Travel Hosts, celebrated its 10th anniversary on August 28^th with suppliers and qualifying Host agencies from around the industry, and I was honored to be part of the celebration. The day-long event in Ft. Lauderdale was a coming together of host agencies to work at determining best practices to better serve each other and benefit travel advisors within those agencies.

As Anita Pagliasso stated when starting the meeting, “Here, we are not competitors; we are unified and collaborating in the desire of identifying and resolving common challenges to better our industry for all concerned.” She named us all “supp-hosts!” It is an ideal setting which allows everyone the opportunity to voice concerns and struggles experienced in the field and work together, brainstorming and using our personal experience to find resolutions to take home. It is always exciting to see the steps taken to instill changes and improvements made from last year’s discussion and know that our industry is filled with passionate, insightful and creative individuals with the common goal of making the travel industry and great place to be employed! The Host agencies meet for an additional half day for an opportunity to work closely together. The overall mood following the meeting was very positive and energized! We all gathered at Taverna Opa for a wonderful networking and relationship building social event. There may have been some dancing on the tables, which is all part of the experience at Taverna Opa, I’m told!

I always leave this event feeling blessed about the relationships this industry has afforded me and excited to continue to grow new ones with the new people I meet!

About the Author

Beth Kitzman is the business development manager for Trisept Solutions' Agency Channel for VAX VacationAccess. Beth focuses on nurturing business relationships and finding exciting, unique ways for VAX to support travel agencies. With over 20 years of experience in the travel industry, beginning with Walt Disney World then working for airlines and now focusing on travel technology, Beth loves using her education degree to find ways to educate and empower travel agents to grow their leisure travel business.