Headquarter Happenings: AMG Celebrates Member Growth, New AI Program

 American Marketing Group (AMG), the parent company of TRAVELSAVERS, NEST, the Affluent Traveler Collection, and more, was scheduled to hold its Travel Market conference late last month in Marco Island, Fla.

The conference was one of a few this year impacted by a heavy hurricane season—Hurricane Helene crossed the Ft. Myers area on Thursday, Sept. 26, the day that Travel Market had its largest number of attendees arriving. The AMG team, which was already two days into its Affluent Traveler Collection Symposium, a separate event, decided to move the Travel Market conference to 2025, with new dates and a new location, in light of Helene’s forecast.

Still, AMG brands, which includes Travel Market Report, celebrated a slate of big accomplishments for 2024 even without its members and team all on the ground at Marco Island. Here are the most relevant updates:

Major growth in TRAVELSAVERS and NEST

TRAVELSAVERS added 17 new affiliates in 2024, which brought it another $78.2 million in preferred partner sales. The group has long pointed to its team of business analysts, who partner closely with members to grow their sales, as a reason behind its success.

Nancy Bennett, the senior vice president of global sales, said that 54 years in, the members-first approach is why those numbers keep going up.

“In our 54 years of business, we have put the advisor’s success first. Our unmatched support, programs, and innovations are enabling our affiliates to attract new business. That’s why we continue to experience strong growth and why we retain agencies for decades after they join,” Bennett said.

NEST, the home-based vehicle under the AMG banner, celebrated a year of huge growth, adding 55 new agencies in 2024 alone, it’s 20^th anniversary year. In total, NEST now numbers 516 agencies, a 12% expansion in the past year, and another $116 million in preferred partner sales.

NEST Senior Vice President Wayne Spector said that the growth comes down to word spreading about the “NEST difference for agencies.”

“Nothing is more satisfying to us than seeing one of our new arrivals soar once they discover the benefits we offer that you can’t find anywhere else,” he said.

The NEST network continues to be invitation-only, requiring all applicants to get approval before joining the group. It offers advisors 100% commission retention, along with some profit-sharing opportunities.

Preferred partner additions

Going with that boost in preferred partner sales, AMG has also added a host of new preferred partners over the course of 2024 including Project Expedition, a land operator for adventure and cultural immersion travel; Le Passage to India, a DMC; tech company Travel Industry Solutions; and new airlines, including Qantas, Turkish Airlines, BermudAir, Condor, and LATAM.

On the hotel side, TRAVELSAVERS Preferred Hotel Program is up to more than 51,000 hotels, including 6,100 extended stay options, in 9,000 cities and 190 countries. AMG advisors have booked 21 million room nights worth $3.9 billion in annual revenue through the program.

There are two new components of that hotel program, aside from the partner additions, that has made a difference for members. A new Marketing Store, where preferred properties can go to browse targeted advertising to the network, and a marketing program called Extended Stays by TRAVELSAVERS, which allows advisors to see long-stay options to meet the rising demand.

The launch of AI Connect

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the most trending term for the travel industry, and likely every other industry in the global economy. That trend was front-and-center at AMG over the past year.

The group launched a brand new, proprietary AI tool called AI Connect that aims to make marketing easier for advisors. The tool takes preferred partner offers for AMG advisors and turns them into social posts, blogs, and landing pages that advisors can use to market to their clients and find new ones. It also integrates with Canva, allowing them to use the materials to build royalty-free, professional graphics that they can deploy across their networks.

The goal is to make things easier for advisors to not only engage their networks, but also engage their preferred partner offers, and at a lower cost than other AI tools in the general marketplace.

AMG CMO Nicole Mazza said that the launch is particularly targeting a new $28 billion-plus opportunity for the travel industry.

“We’re seizing that opportunity with AI Connect and giving our advisors the advantage they need to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. With AI Connect, they’ll be able to work smarter and faster to create professional marketing materials that will translate into sales,” she said.

Other tech additions

Aside from AI Connect, AMG has also made some changes to its other tools, including tripXpress, its booking platform that now includes 26 cruise lines. Advisors using tripXpress can now pull live information into passive bookings in real-time and soon be able to add a link to their communications that takes consumer straight to the booking process, allowing them to book on their own while automatically attributing it to the advisor.

There are more technological innovations in the pipe, too. tripXpress will soon offer the ability to custom-brand URLs at the agency or advisor level that will stay the same for every marketing campaign, letting them use that single link across all communications.

AMG is also planning on enhancing the advisor extranet with a streamlined homepage and a more intuitive display.