If the travel industry is booming, it’s home-based agents who are leading the charge.

But that’s just one piece of news from last week’s Travel Market in Orlando, where Travelsavers and NEST advisors gathered for their bi-annual conference. And of course, there also were tips from top sellers on how to navigate these crazy times.

Both of the American Marketing Group divisions that gathered at Travel Market—Travelsavers, home to brick-and-mortar agencies, and NEST for home-based—saw big growth in 2024 and so far in 2025. Travelsavers is up 19 agencies in 2024 and 4 so far in 2025, with sales of $88 million and $43.4 million in preferred suppliers, respectively. But “NEST is where we see massive growth,” said Kathryn Mazza-Burney, with 60 new agencies last year and 39 so far in 2025, together bringing in almost $300 million in new preferred supplier sales.

Coming off two very strong double-digit years, chief marketing officer Nicole Mazza is feeling very bullish about the market in 2025 “and I don’t see us coming to normalization, so we might see a lot of double-digit growth for 2026 as well,” she said. While 39% of travel advisors in an April/May survey reported that summer bookings are down, half remain optimistic about sales for the year.

Looking at trends, Canadian advisors reported a big increase in small group travel. Among destinations, the Travel Market data showed how new products and the travel advisors who sell them drive business: Colombia and Aruba saw strong growth in 2025—likely the result of AmaWaterways’ new river cruise in the former and a slew of new builds and all-inclusives in the latter.

For their own advisors, Travel Market highlighted a number of new technology and marketing products. The big message here—as at other consortia and host agency conferences this year—is that in this online world, a great agency profile really can bring in new business.

To that end, OnlineXpress, a website creation and hosting program, has generated 85 websites, 822,000 emails—and 2,100 leads for travel advisors. The companies are “doing a lot more in the social space, investing in lead generation content and making sure we are forwarding leads to the right agents.” In the past 30-45 days, new digital campaigns on consumer sites are designed to push content created using the AI Connect powered by Toby.

And Speaking of AI…
The rollout of AI Connect Powered by Toby by the two companies offers advisors a tool that builds on ChatGPT by adding an assistant trained in the nuances of the travel industry, that can be shared by five advisors, at a lower price. “We’ve built in all our promotions, so you can pick up one and say, ‘Write a blog and a letter for my clients about this pormotion,’ and then just drag and drop,” Mazza-Burney said. “That’s what we are training our agents to do first. This is our largest launch, at this show, and we have webinars and business advisors here to help. I love that it’s built for the industry, that it’s not open source so all your data is secure, and that it can talk in your voice.”

Also launching is Marketing Hub, an 18-month effort to combine the marketing and direct mail platforms, so travel advisors can see the results of their marketing efforts in real time and download them into their CRMs.

The Dip
So, how’s the year going? “There were geopolitical conversations, the market went down, but not everybody dipped,” Mazza-Burney said. The river cruise and luxury markets have been consistent, but there has been softening across other segments. But the markets are coming back strong, and “every indicator is looking bullish.” In the Canadian markets, while many may be steering away from US destinations, they often are choosing higher-yielding products.

Overall, “we’re still seeing some volatility,” with a lot of really short-term bookings or else Christmas into 2026. “But when we look at revenue, we are still seeing growth,” she said.

On the “How can advisors thrive during these volatile times?” panel, Louie di Tacchio said his agency, Progress Travel in Canada, is up about 5% this year. He’s been using AI to create promotions highlighting Travelsavers specials, believing “that little extra push will get that client in your door.” Community involvement and networking are also key in Canada, and he partnered with a local newspaper to run a successful travel show; “you have to make people aware you are there.” And don’t forget the basics of customer service. “Every morning, I go onto my calendar and send personal birthday cards to my clients.”

Jennifer Doncsecz, president of VIP Vacations in Bethlehem, PA, reports a definite slowdown in the destination weddings market.

A wedding is the culmination of a multiple-year process that begins with dating, moves into getting serious, then getting engaged, then planning. People weren’t dating during Covid and even into 2021, when that process would have begun for 2025 weddings, Doncsecz said. The high cost of housing is affecting that market as well, (along with other leisure travel in the $3,000-$7,000 range. But luxury and cruise sales are soaring—“we’re insanely busy, and overall sales are up, but very close in,” she said.

This year, she’s been focusing on retaining her existing customers rather than bringing in new ones. She’s “doubling down on our database,” using products like AIClientBase, Gemini Research and MailChimp to identify customers celebrating 10th anniversaries or milestone birthdays, and asking AI to sort targeted marketing messages for them. And she’s been holding consumer events, like a Halloween “Wine and Spirits” party to which she invites the cruise companies.

It’s all about following the numbers, she says, looking carefully at statistics and metrics to see what works. “We found that every single time a post had a photo of an advisor, engagement went way up. So I try to get advisors to share our posts on their own pages. If we get a certificate of some kind we use Canva Pro and put the advisor’s photo on it. We find that when we post on LinkedIn, we get really good people in business to see it.”

NEST member Jana Elias, owner of Tootles & Nibs Travel, which specializes in solo and adult-only travel, is selling more trips but at lower price points than last year, so overall sales are down slightly, she said. Many of her customers are US military and government, where there is “a lot of uncertainly, and people feel they don’t have the ability to take off as much as they did before.”

Her advice? “This market is always a roller coaster. When we see it go down, it will usually come back with force. So stay the course and rely on other advisors within the community.”