Professional Travel Agents of North America Announces Strategic Partnership

Image: Family with travel agent. (photo via Comstock / Royalty-free)
Image: Family with travel agent. (photo via Comstock / Royalty-free)
TravelPulse Staff
by TravelPulse Staff
Last updated: 11:08 AM ET, Fri June 15, 2018

WHY IT RATES: For travel agents, the new partnership between PTANA and TSMG will give agents a support system to make their jobs easier.-Donald Wood, Breaking News Senior Writer.


Professional Travel Agents of North America (PTANA) announced a partnership with Travel Show Marketing Group (TSMG), producers of the highly acclaimed Travel Agent Forums.

Jim Cloonan, President of TSMG, commented, "With like-minded goals of driving professional growth and education within the travel agency distribution channel, we recognized there are tremendous synergies between our organizations, making this partnership with PTANA a no-brainer. Over the course of several months, in speaking with PTANA leadership, I realized that it wasn't a question of whether or not this relationship made sense, but rather why we hadn't coordinated with one another years ago."

PTANA is currently celebrating its 10th year as an association with a focus on education, certification, accreditation and industry relationships for their members. Robin Spelman, PTANA Chairman went on to say, "TSMG and their events are designed specifically for the education of the travel agent and we feel that our core beliefs line-up perfectly with them."

Lila Nicholas, the former PTANA Chairman, added, "Having personally attended both the Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum and the Romance Travel Forum, I had the opportunity to see the value of TSMG's event portfolio at work, and realize this organization is unyielding in their initiatives in supporting and educating the travel agent community. This new collaboration will not only afford PTANA the chance to add to the educational offerings but build awareness of all that these events have to offer for agents at all career levels. I'm thrilled to be working with them."

Cloonan reiterated the TSMG teams' excitement for this new partnership, and the opportunity to work with an association that places great importance on education and career development. In addition to building awareness, PTANA agents and their leadership will play a role in enhanced conference content, creating unique learning opportunities that will not be found at other industry programs.

Professional Travel Agents of North America (PTANA), is a Non-Profit Organization, created in January 2009. FOR TRAVEL AGENTS BY TRAVEL AGENTS. Professional Travel Agents of North America (PTANA) is a well-recognized entity in the Travel Industry. Concentrating on Education...Networking...Community outreach, with an emphasis on creating strong relationships with Industry Partners. To PTANA..."It's all about the Relationship!"

Travel Show Marketing Group (TSMG) is an independent event and tradeshow organizer exclusively serving the North American leisure travel agent community. TSMG produces a diverse portfolio of large-scale tradeshows and conferences along with boutique niche events. The organization has a reach to over 40,000 travel agent professionals and a global base of supplier partners.


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