DWHSA Launches New ‘Strategic Group Contracting’ Training for Travel Advisors

Image: A travel advisor hard at work (Photo Credit: rh2010/Adobe Stock)
Image: A travel advisor hard at work (Photo Credit: rh2010/Adobe Stock)
Noreen Kompanik
by Noreen Kompanik
Last updated: 7:50 AM ET, Wed February 25, 2026

Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) will roll out a media brief training for travel advisors on March 2, 2026.

This comes as a result of DWHSA beginning 1:1 discussions with major resort suppliers about critical group room block contracting issues in late 2024. During the discussions, resort executives identified one stressful reason for stricter group contracts with agents – excessive returns of unsold space in agents’ group room blocks, ranging from 40 to 70 percent at the “book by” deadlines.

The media training will include a 99-minute lesson with video and a PDF handout explaining DWHSA’s new “Hold-Set-Release” strategy for advisors to avoid overbooking group blocks with suppliers, set their own early-booking deadlines with group guests and reduce the risk of attrition penalties.

Lesson creators include two high volume DWHSA members whose agencies book hundreds of groups every year– Kim Goldstein of Journeys, Inc. in Virginia and Shelli Nornes of Romance Travel Group in Minnesota.

The training is complimentary to all U.S. and Canadian advisors who can register for the training starting Monday, March 2 at StrategicGroupContracting.com.

The Zoom briefing can be accessed by using this link with Passcode 12345. For those unable to join “live,” the Zoom training will be recorded.


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