Headquarter Happenings: Gifted Travel Network Celebrates Change at 2025 GTN Conference

Change was, unsurprisingly, the main motif at this year’s Gifted Travel Network annual conference.

Held at the new Conrad Orlando at Evermore Orlando Resort from Sept. 7 to 11, GTN Conference 2025 drew advisors and suppliers for a week of networking, professional development, prizes, and fun (including a reception at Disney’s EPCOT courtesy of Disney Destinations).

The 2026 GTN Conference will be held Sept. 14 to 18 at the Conrad Tulum Riviera Maya resort. For next year, there will be exclusive FAM opportunities available before and after the conference, with those who register early getting the first chance to sign up for the optional FAM extensions.

“This year has been a lot,” said GTN Engagement Director Shannon Cunningham, the event’s emcee. “Most of us don’t like change … However, like it or not, change is one thing we can count on.”

The luxury-focused host agency has evolved significantly since entering the industry in 2013. The last decade has seen GTN transform from a scrappy startup to a major player among boutique agencies — ranking among the top accounts at Virtuoso, as well as with many of its partners.

Over just the last year, the host agency saw its biggest changes to date: GTN was acquired by Trevello World Holdings and co-founder Vanessa McGovern left the company, marking both the start of a new chapter and the end of an era, respectively.

Cunningham invited attendees to embrace change, while reminding the audience where the host agency’s priorities lie.

“In the middle of all the change that’s been going on, especially at GTN, the one thing that has remained constant — and will always remain constant — is that the focus will always be on you, the travel advisor,” she said.

GTN 2025 Snapshot: More and More $1 Million Agencies

Jen Cochrane, co-founder and CEO at Gifted Travel Network, opened the first day of presentations with a GTN State of the Union address.

“Change is often disruptive, and it’s often not comfortable,” the C-suite exec told the room. “It’s also inevitable and it’s necessary… If we’re not changing, we can’t grow, we can’t innovate, we can’t get better.”

At just 378 advisors across 252 agencies, GTN makes up a fraction of Virtuoso’s 20,000 travel advisors in 54 countries around the globe; yet, the boutique luxury host agency is punching above its weight class.

As of the end of July, GTN has already done $150 million in sales, representing a 12% year-over-year increase. Within this, 50 GTN agencies have reached or nearly reached at least $1 million in sales—representing one-quarter of agencies, not including those in the TravelMBA program.

“On average, we’re doing almost $600,000 in sales per agency, which is really phenomenal,” said Cochrane. “That blows the averages across the street out of the water.”

Looking at membership growth, Cochrane pointed to how sales have increased without needing to increase the number of advisors. Membership has remained steady compared to 2024, and Cochrane said the plan going forward is to continue growing with intentionality — only adding members who feel like the right fit.

“Our growth has come from our passion, which is empowering success through entrepreneurship, through your success,” said Cochrane. “It’s not growing from just growing the number of people that are contributing to the sales, which is the way that most host agencies grow.”

Speaking at the GTN Executive Team Panel, Meredith Calloway, chief membership development officer, said that the company is being “very selective” with whom it brings in:

“Our philosophy on the membership development side is we don’t want to grow just to grow. We want to grow because we believe there’s a tremendous demand for this profession and for this business opportunity, and we want to provide the right opportunity to the right person.”

GTN’s Future with Trevello

Canadian host agency Trevello acquired GTN as a first step to enter the U.S. market; however, the Trevello and GTN brands will remain completely separate, despite having the same shareholders.

Cochrane addressed the merger with Trevello during both her State of the Union talk and the Executive Panel. Her main takeaway: that Trevello and GTN were perfectly positioned to complement each other.

“We now have a sister brand with Trevello,” she explained. “We have some common interests, like [Trevello is] also very passionate about professionalism in the industry and supporting advisors… But the truth is, the brands are very different.”

The CEO characterized Trevello as having a broader focus than GTN, which is more of a luxury-specific boutique agency model. Together, the two brands can leverage their partnerships and combined industry reputations to pursue the best possible deals for their agents.

For example, because of Trevello’s sales with Princess, GTN was able to increase the cruise line’s commission from 15% to 16% for its advisors.

Another area Cochrane believes GTN will benefit from is Trevello’s three decades of executive experience, which brings with it fresh ideas from proven industry leaders, as well as opportunities for better efficiencies on the employment side, like with human resources.

Ultimately, Cochrane argued the deal was in the best interest of GTN because it puts the company in a better position to help its advisors succeed in building their businesses, especially in an era of private equity companies creating large conglomerates with travel management companies.

“It’s the travel advisor who is creating the wealth in the industry … So we want to work together to make sure that more of that wealth that’s getting created in the industry is going back to the travel advisor.”