Packed House in Toronto as TravelBrands Continues Agent Appreciation Tour

The evidence is in. Canada’s travel advisor community is strong, confident and more relevant than ever.

The latest happening to hammer that point home was last night’s TravelBrands Agent Appreciation Event at the Universal Event Space in Vaughan, north of Toronto. 

Not long after Air Canada Vacations packed the expansive space for its 50^th anniversary product launch, TravelBrands rolled in with 100 suppliers and 750 travel advisors attendees in tow. 

The TravelBrands week began in Vancouver, where 300 advisors came out, and will wind up in Montreal tonight, with over 400 registered advisors.

The Toronto event featured two identical presentations spaced an hour apart, with half of the attendees assigned to each. That opened up room at the trade show, giving space and time for advisors to meaningfully connect with suppliers and the expansive TravelBrands team.

For the younger advisors in the room, it may have come as a surprise that the company traces its origins back over 70 years, when Holiday House and Fun Sun Vacations made their debuts. Those brands are now retired to history, but the over 50 year-old Sunquest and 40+ Exotik are still fully functional, as is Encore Cruises, which made its debut in 1991.

Billing itself as a one-stop shop, today TravelBrands works with more than 85 airlines, 22 cruise lines and 10+ car rental companies. It offers advisors and their clients more than 2 million hotels and vacation rentals around the world.

Today, TravelBrands is owned by Japanese travel conglomerate HIS, which boasts more than 500 locations and 70,000 employees around the world. Since purchasing the company, HIS has largely given TravelBrands autonomy to do what it does best, empowering Canadian travel agents with innovative solutions that make travel planning and booking easier and more efficient.

The Agent Appreciation presentations were hosted by Director of Sales Bruce Lidberg and Strategic Account Manager Jeff Carpenter. The engaging pair proudly noted that TravelBrands, has achieved Great Place to Work certification in Canada for multiple consecutive years and was named one of the 2025 Best Workplaces Led by Women and one of the 2025 Best Workplaces for Inclusion.

The woman who leads TravelBrands is Nathalie Tanious, and you can read her thoughts on trends, tools and what’s ahead for the company in this recent TMR Canada article by Marsha Mowers.

Lidberg and Carpenter ran through the highlights of initiatives at all the major brands represented by the company, and detailed some of the technology enhancements designed to make it easier for travel advisors to plan and book vacations for their clients from a massive range of options.

Carpenter likened what TravelBrands does for advisors to what advisors do for their clients.

“Why do people use travel agents? For their knowledge, maybe for deals, but most importantly for support if something goes wrong. That’s what we do too, and I don’t think anyone offers support to agents like we do.”