“There’s No TravelBrands Without Travel Advisors:” a Conversation with Nathalie Tanious

In more than three decades in the Canadian travel industry, Nathalie Tanious has held progressively senior roles with companies offering a broad range of travel products, from cruises to tours, airline consolidation to online retailing. 

Today, as president and CEO of H.I.S./TravelBrands/Red Label Vacations Inc., she presides over a company that offers all of those products and more. As she puts it: “Everything from two nights in a hotel to an exotic journey to Japan to a trip to the edge of space.”

It feels like everything Tanious did in the first 25 years of her career were preparation for today’s role leading TravelBrands, “a comprehensive one-stop shop for all travel” that serves more than two million Canadians each year.

“I’ve been really lucky to work in multiple areas and divisions” she told TMR Canada. And it feels like the stars have aligned to put me here. We have such amazing diversity of product.”

In fact, there’s so much product that TravelBrands boasts it gives advisors “access to the world.” Tanious is quick to say that the relationship is very much a two-way street. 

“There would be no TravelBrands without travel advisors. We give them innovation and tools to enhance the customer service experience and make booking easier. We service them well. Time is money, for them and for us.”

Tanious emphasizes the importance of technology in every aspect of marketing travel in 2025. Creating self-service online tools for advisors is an ongoing priority, but with the complexity of some of the TravelBrands product, she also notes that the TravelBrands contact centre “won’t be going anywhere soon.”

“We are well-staffed in English and French and wait-times are minimal. We’ve invested to ensure there is always someone to answer advisor questions,” Tanious said.

That said, advisors are increasingly welcoming and adopting online tools, and the TravelBrands CEO is particularly proud of enhancements to the in-house designed, artificial intelligence-backed Gigi air booking engine that powers the Intair Flights brand. “We continue to add enhancements and advisors are loving it. Once they get to know Gigi, she’s a gem.”

Last year, TravelBrands launched Access+, a revamped and upgraged version of the company’s popular Access platform. “It’s the advisor hub for everything TravelBrands,” Tanious says. “It is user-friendly for query, search, and booking, and it houses our loyalty campaigns and so much more. Everything sits there.”

Through its Encore Cruises brand, TravelBrands is a major Canadian sea travel seller. Tanious is proud of the company’s “We’ve Got Your Back” protection program, which covers cruise bookings with air and sea components. If clients miss their cruise because of a flight delay, schedule change or cancellation, TravelBrands will get them to the next port of call, using a wide variety of airlines. “It doesn’t replace insurance, but it really provides peace of mind,” Tanious says.

The TravelBrands leader says she continues to be surprised by how many people want to be travel advisors and are entering the industry as either a first or second career. 

“Today they have the tools, the technology and they can work from anywhere. But training is king, and the proper information and knowledge is critical due to liability issues. Our sales team is constantly training and updating advisors so they have the latest information they need to serve their clients.”

After the deluge of post-COVID ‘revenge travel’ bookings in 2023 and 2024, Tanious describes the 2024-2025 winter season market as “very odd.”

“We started the fall softer than expected, likely due to factors including the U.S. election, inflation and the low Canadian dollar. But as soon as it got cold, business boomed. So it’s a late-booking market but clients aren’t really getting lower prices. They’re still better off booking in advance.”

While prices for beach vacations remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic, Tanious says the “money is no object” attitude among consumers has definitely shifted. “People are definitely more budget-conscious now. But the Caribbean and Mexico are still going gangbusters. Canadians love the heat in winter.”

Other hot TravelBrands products include Exotik Journeys value-priced long-stays in Portugal, Spain and Malta, Tanious says. The Exotik brand can also take your clients to destinations around the globe – and even a little further — with upcoming Space Perspective flights carrying travellers to the edge of space.

Tanious says Japanese parent H.I.S.’s extensive DMC network gives TravelBrands access to a vast amount of travel opportunity. “We have amazing product through this relationship, especially in places like Japan, Turkey and Greece,” says Tanious. It gives us so much more leverage.”