CLIA Names Dwain Wall SVP of Agency Relations
by Andrew Sheivachman /CLIA has named Dwain Wall senior vice president in charge of agency and trade relations. The newly created position is part of the organization’s drive to bolster its partnership with the travel agency community and build agent membership.
Wall, who begins in the new job immediately, stepped down in November from his role as senior vice president and general manager of World Travel Holdings’ CruiseOne and Cruises Inc.
"There are some who say CLIA has been cruise line-centric for the last few years, and it's my job to change that so agents feel they have an advocate at the very top speaking for them," said Wall.
The move comes as CLIA turns its focus back to the travel agent.
“We’ve been looking at a new or enhanced value proposition for the travel agent member segment of CLIA, and we felt we needed someone with a fresh set of eyes,” Christine Duffy, CEO of CLIA, told Travel Market Report.
Agent advocate
Duffy said interviews with travel agent members of CLIA showed that the organization needs a more robust liaison with and advocate for the travel agency community. For instance, she said, agents didn’t know about some of the things CLIA does for them.
CLIA also needs to implement new strategies to effectively help agents, she said.
“The interviews demonstrated the need to have someone be the advocate for the agency membership of CLIA, that we need to be more engaged and active with that community,” said Duffy. “It’s always been a piece of somebody’s job, but we really needed someone who is dedicated and who has been in that role recently.”
Experience & passion
Over his 30 year career, Wall has worked in different sectors of the travel industry, including at Hotels.com; Grand Expeditions, which he co-founded, and as a senior executive for Carlson Companies. He has also served on numerous advisory boards, including Travel Market Report’s Editorial Advisory Board. He plans on quickly implementing changes to CLIA's relationship with agents.
"We can do some things that will make agents feel a lot better about the investment CLIA is making on their behalf," said Wall. "We're going to look at what agents do and don't value in order to understand where to put our priorities."
Duffy said that when she saw that Wall had stepped down from World Travel Holdings she got in touch and began a series of conversations. The organization cited his experience and passion for the travel agency community as determining factors in his hiring.
“He will work on our new value proposition, implement it and manage it,” said Duffy. “He will be in a position that is much more visible than I have been in, given the more global nature of CLIA.”
Wall will work alongside Margaret Murphy, CLIA’s senior vice president of strategic marketing. Murphy will continue to develop education and training efforts while Wall adapts to his new role.
Initial reaction to Wall’s hiring has been overwhelmingly favorable, Duffy said. “My inbox is flooded with lots of positive response from travel agents.”