Following Travel Weekly’s Hawaii Leadership Forum last month, 12 travel advisors, hoteliers and wholesalers met at the Sheraton Waikiki to discuss Hawaii tourism. Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann moderated the roundtable, which covered a variety of topics, from Maui to vacation rentals to parity between travel advisor commissions and other distribution channels. Here are some of the highlights from that session. (The exchanges have been edited for length, clarity and to keep recurring topics together.)
Arnie Weissmann: To the suppliers: Do you have parity across distribution channels? Is that something that’s even possible, given how complex the distribution system is?
Ray Snisky, group president, ALG Vacations: I mean this in the humblest way, as a large player in this space: We have to be a champion for advisors, to champion against disintermediation and let advisors know their value. I said [at the Travel Weekly Hawaii Leadership Forum the previous day] that we have…
