ASTA TAC News and Notes: Hotel Commission Delays, Jackie Friedman Bids Farewell

SALT LAKE CITY — This week, hundreds of travel advisors from across the United States descended on Salt Lake City for the annual Travel Advisor Conference (TAC), hosted by the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA).

The event is ASTA’s largest domestic conference and its most important, ASTA President and CEO Zane Kerby told Travel Market Report on Wednesday. “This is a great and important touchpoint for our members,” he said.

This year’s location—Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City, less than 50 miles from Brigham Young University in Provo—felt like something of a homecoming for Kerby, a BYU alumnus. Onstage during the opening general session, Kerby said the goal for the week was to “double down on education, networking, and strengthening our efforts in advocacy.”

“A weak or nonexistent ASTA would leave important battles unsought,” he added. “ASTA exists because there’s important work to do and important ground to defend.”

For ASTA members who focus on outbound travel from the U.S., current political and economic turbulence hasn’t had a significant impact.

“That business is going very well,” Kerby told TMR, referring to international travel. “Our members—the trust that they create with the traveling public—is extraordinary. People are generally getting out and seeing the world.”

When it comes to “political realities in Washington,” Kerby added, “As soon as it harms our members or our members’ businesses, then we’ll speak out.”

Fighting Against Late Hotel Commission Payments

Still, there is work to be done—even with travel demand remaining strong. Kerby said ASTA is actively working behind the scenes to address one of the industry’s most frustrating issues: delayed hotel commission payments.

“It’s one of the most important problems our members face,” he said. “The issue is the lag between when advisors make a sale and when they get paid. It’s getting worse.”

ASTA is currently focused on resolving the issue through quiet advocacy, aiming to reach a “workable market solution.” If that fails, Kerby said, the association won’t hesitate to escalate.

“We always start reasonably,” he said. “In Washington, legislators need to know that when people are unfair and deceptive, or not living up to reasonable terms and conditions—not all those things are questions of legality, but they are questions of fairness.”

For now, though, it’s a quiet but determined fight.

Fighting for Better Travel Infrastructure

One fight that isn’t quiet is the battle to improve the nation’s travel infrastructure—most specifically, the hardware, software, and staffing that the U.S. air travel system is based on. That system has been stretched and tattered recently, causing a run of issues, most clearly demonstrated by the problems at Newark Liberty International (EWR) this year.

ASTA supports the push by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Secretary Duffy to revamp the entire air traffic control system. Kerby told TMR that the key is ensuring the $26 billion Duffy requested for improvements is front-loaded so work can start immediately. (The budget bill passed the House in the early hours of Thursday.)

A Goodbye to Jackie Friedman

The TAC also marked the end of rotating terms for ASTA’s board of directors. While many of the new members were announced earlier in May, Kerby took time on stage Wednesday to introduce them to the membership and thank the outgoing board members.

Kerby gave special recognition to Nexion’s Jackie Friedman, who officially concluded her fourth term on the board—this latest one as chair. He joked on stage that Friedman had served ASTA “10 out of the last 8 years.”

“There aren’t five people on the planet that can keep up with her,” he told TMR. “It didn’t matter what time zone she was in—even if she was halfway around the world and was calling in for a committee call, she’d do it. Or if we needed someone to step up on stage and talk to Rudi Schreiner and Torstein Hagen at the River Expo, or Venus Williams in Dallas last year, she did it.”

Last year, ASTA held two back-to-back events—Travel Masters in Hawaii and the Caribbean Showcase. Only three people attended both: Kerby, Friedman, and ASTA’s Sarah Little.

When asked if it was a bittersweet moment seeing Friedman leave the board, Kerby said, “It’s not bittersweet, it’s just bitter.”

NousTravel’s Lee Thomas, the former COO of ALTOUR, is now taking over as chair. Thomas, who served on the board from 2008 through 2012 and most recently as vice chair for the past two years, “bleeds the same colors as Friedman,” Kerby added.

VeriVacation Update

After launching earlier this year, ASTA’s VeriVacation lead generation tool for travel advisors has already seen more than 150,000 consumers use the platform to search for an advisor.

Those searches have been distributed among a database of about 100 Verified Travel Advisors (VTAs), a number that Kerby expects to grow to 1,500 by midyear and as many as 2,000 or 3,000 by year’s end.

The VTA certification program was introduced in 2017 as a way to help seasoned travel advisors elevate their careers. Earning the VTA designation bolsters credibility and comes with benefits including early access to ASTA events, exclusive supplier functions, recognition, and even bonus commissions.

The VeriVacation website has also received some major upgrades, including a new ZIP code search function that allows consumers to find advisors near them.

Kerby told TMR that ASTA is also considering a change to the program’s sales threshold requirement. Currently, advisors must meet a $500,000 annual sales minimum to maintain their VTA status, but that could change.

“We’re thinking maybe about relaxing it,” he said, suggesting the requirement could shift from an annual benchmark to a one-time qualification.