USTOA Annual Conference Opens in San Diego

“I’d like to tell you a story about how I learned about traveling.” 

That’s how Terry Dale, the president and CEO of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), kicked off this week’s annual conference and marketplace in San Diego. 

Dale, taking a seat on stage in a 1972 lazy-boy recliner that was shipped in from Arizona for the occasion with and an old fashioned photo carousel slide right next to it, told attendees about his childhood in Iowa, years spent mostly vacation-free.

His grandparents, however, were able to take bigger vacations. Their travel was mostly incentive trips every two years or so, typically to a state park or sometimes to Hawaii. 

When they came back, Dale and his family experienced the trips through that carousel, seeing the world through those slides, catching glimpses of what life was like outside of their home state. 

“It came from a carousel-like this and my grandma Dale like you see on the screen,” he said.

Those photos opened his eyes to the world of travel, a gift that he said he could never thank his grandmother for. Who he could thank, however, were the USTOA members on hand this week, members that have become Dale’s family over his decade-long tenure at the helm of USTOA. 

This week served as a celebration for Dale and his USTOA family, both of the continued return to travel and of its 50th anniversary as an association. It’s been a long five decades for USTOA, and no time has been more difficult than the last few years, but there’s a bright future, and intense commitment, ahead. 

“There has been so much that our founders have accomplished to get us to this anniversary at this conference,” he said. “We now have a responsibility to our founders to make sure the next 50 years are even better.” 

“We are going to change things for our clients, our destinations, and our world,” he said. 

Charlie Ball, the USTOA chairman and EVP of land operations and customer service for Holland America Group, called the pandemic “a very very hard couple of years” filled with difficult decisions and lost friends and family members. 

“As hard as our business has been hit there are others that have really suffered catastrophic loss,” he said, adding that even with that hardship, USTOA, and the travel industry, have to be ready to celebrate success. 

“Difficult times have taught us about friendship, about collaboration, and about the real need to celebrate success. As we put the pandemic behind us let’s all hold on to that when times are good again.” 

“Seeing you all here today is just such a great tonic that we are on the road back and we will do better in the future. Let’s take this couple of days to reconnect and reflect on how things are gonna be when we can share ht fit of travel again. For so long we haven’t had that luxury. Thank goodness it’s time,” he said.