| Valerie Wilson Travel: Business and Pleasure |
| Hospitality | |||
| Written by Eric Slack | |||
| Thursday, 01 May 2008 | |||
 Valerie Wilson tells us how a family mentality and industry expertise helped her travel agency grow.
“Corporations have started pulling in somewhat, and leisure travelers are possibly shortening trips by a day,” said Wilson. “But we’re finding that it is only a slight slowdown, and the majority of people are still traveling.”  Valerie Wilson, founder, chairman, and CEO VWT will celebrate its 27th birthday this September, giving it more than a quarter-century of experience in corporate and leisure travel. Wilson started the firm based on her own experiences as a business traveler, which she felt were lacking in service and knowledge. Despite not having a centralized corporate sales group, the firm has grown over the years through word of mouth from clients combined with branch expansion and acquisition. Today, the company has 14 dedicated VWT offices and three affiliates. Wilson said there are two key reasons behind VWT’s growth into one of the largest privately held and family managed travel firms in the country. Those key reasons are Wilson’s daughters, Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg and Kimberly Wilson Wetty, VWT’s co-presidents. Wilson-Buttigieg and Wetty have worked in the family firm for 17 and 15 years, respectively, each bringing a passion for the industry into the fold. To say these apples fell pretty close to the tree would be a gross understatement. “The company would not be what it is without my two daughters running and growing it with me,” said Wilson. “They’re my greatest assets, and my competitors wish I could clone them.” Preferred partnerships Wilson-Buttigieg was responsible for diversifying the company’s product lines. Her work also resulted in some of the company’s most lucrative corporate accounts. She continues to oversee VWT’s new business opportunities, strategic direction, and the firm’s preferred airline partnerships and programs. Wetty was responsible for building VWT’s cruise division, which is one of the top producers in the industry. She has managed all of the company’s leisure business for 10 years, and she maintains the company’s Virtuoso membership. Virtuoso is an exclusive, invitation-only network of travel agents. Only companies that excel in service and have first-rate expertise in the travel industry are eligible. In fact, fewer than 1% of the travel consultants in our hemisphere are ultimately accepted for Virtuoso membership. It allows VWT relationships with all luxury cruise lines, the most sought after hotels and resorts, and the leading tour and adventure operators in the world. Reliable structure The staffing success of the company extends beyond the three leading ladies at the top. Wilson said when VWT held its 25th anniversary celebration in October 2006, she honored 58 staff members who had been with the firm for more than 10 years. That number might make more of an impression once you realize Wilson only has 320 total employees. Many of Wilson’s associate agents and direct staff members have come to VWT with experience in the industry. However, Wilson said those people have found values and principles at VWT to match their own personal beliefs in customer service. “‘No’ is not a word in our vocabulary. We just state the facts. If there is problem, we see what we can do to solve the issue immediately,” Wilson said. “We tell our clients if we haven’t been somewhere before, but we’ve successfully sent clients there for years who have shared information with us, or if a colleague in the office has been there.” Internal training is also crucial to VWT’s staff performance. Wilson said training differs depending on the need and can be on subjects like technology or products. But she also said VWT prefers one-on-one personalized training efforts as opposed to big classroom setting. But this year, Wilson-Buttigieg is leading what Wilson describes as “VWT 101” seminars on everything available in the company’s tool chest, whether it is corporate or leisure business. The presentations have been virtually branch-wide, with Wilson-Buttigieg meeting personally with more than half of VWT’s staff and the company making a DVD of the presentation for those locations she can’t get to as easily. For the company to continue up the ranks of American travel consultants, Wilson knows the firm will have to be on the look out for more opportunities for branch expansion. Although the company recently added an affiliate branch in Tennessee, 2007 was a slower year for VWT’s branch growth. But 2008 is shaping up to be a year full of potential for both branch expansion and affiliate operations. VWT doesn’t limit its growth avenues, instead preferring a balanced portfolio of growth through expansion, acquisition, and affiliation. With a physical footprint expanding through 10 states, the company allows each of its managers the freedom to operate branches as they see fit within the framework of the VWT family of products and services. An intranet system first introduced at the turn of the century provides easy communication between branches and also gives each employee access to vital information on the latest company offerings. The firm’s executive director also communicates with each branch and affiliate on a daily basis. The trick now is to ensure a continued understanding of what corporate and leisure travelers want, knowing what amenities are crucial and what destinations are hot. Fears about safety and a weakened dollar may be factors VWT agents have to consider when dealing with a client, but Wilson said the company knows its market well enough to allay such fears. “There may be a flattening of travel within Europe, particularly in 2008. But those that might have gone to Europe might now go to Asia, where it is still a little less expensive,” she said. “Anybody in this business has to worry about a major recession or worldwide problem, like war or unrest. The most important thing for me is maintaining our reputation, which we do by being straightforward with our clients.” |
|||
| < Previous Story | Next Story > |
|---|
© 2008 American Executive - RedCoat Publishing. All rights reserved.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
