Mountain Travel Symposium Celebrates Success
The 42nd annual Mountain Travel Symposium (MTS), took place in Banff and Lake Louise from March 26 - April 1, 2017 with upwards of 1,100 participants in attendance.
The business-to-business event connects the most influential domestic and international tour operators worldwide with mountain resort representatives and destination marketing organizations. MTS is the single largest gathering of mountain travel professionals in North America where millions of dollars in destination travel for mountain resorts are negotiated for the upcoming year.
"The level of participation and engagement we saw from both buyer and supplier attendees at this year's MTS was outstanding," said Michael Pierson, Managing Director, Mountain Travel Symposium. "Seeing the convention center abuzz confirms the education, industry updates and networking that MTS provides are of incredible value for members of the mountain travel community.
At the Trade and Group Exchanges, over 600 buyers and sellers met, allowing attendees to discuss mutual business opportunities face-to-face. Professional meeting planners, representing millions of dollars of business to the mountain destinations, met with representatives from destinations, resorts, lodging and service providers at the Meetings Exchange.
The weeklong event allowed participants to achieve a year's worth of business in just a few days due to the highly successful Exchanges, where more than 14,000 pre-scheduled appointments took place. Additional networking opportunities were had during a first-ever on-mountain ski networking day, a newly added reception following the Trade Exchange and a first-timer's reception.
With representatives from over thirty-five countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, along with countries in Europe, Asia, Central America and South America, MTS is truly a global event.
"Throughout MTS, attendees are making connections that lead to the continued growth and development of their businesses," said Alicia Evanko-Lewis, Senior Vice President of Events, Travel Group, Northstar Travel Group. "We're thrilled that MTS is an integral part of so many businesses in the mountain travel industry. Our goal is to ensure it remains valuable to our loyal participants year over year and this year was no different."
The two-day Forum took place on Wednesday and Thursday, March 29-30, featuring thought leadership content from influencers in mountain travel. The Forum is comprised of general sessions delivered by nationally known keynote speakers, interactive group workshops on topics in the tracks of sales, marketing or destination sessions.
This year's General Session speakers included Kelly Vanderbeek, Canadian Olympic Skier; Amy Purdy, Paralympian snowboard medalist and inspirational motivational speaker; Christine Warner, Head of Travel at Facebook; Rob Torres, Managing Director, Travel, Google; and Melissa Maher, Senior Vice President, Global Partner Group, Expedia Inc.
"The feedback and response to the innovative content and collection of speakers is unprecedented for an MTS Forum event," said Bruce Rosard, Director, MTS Forum and D@MTS. "The bar has been raised for 2018."
Mountain Travel Symposium moves to Heavenly Lake Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, CA for 2018, taking place April 8-14. For more information about the event, visit www.mtntrvl.com.
About Northstar Travel Group
Northstar Travel Group is the leading provider of business-to-business news, information, data, transactions and custom content solutions for the travel, meetings and hospitality industries. Brands under the Northstar umbrella include Travel Weekly, Travel Weekly China, Travel Weekly Asia, TravelAge West, Business Travel News, Phocuswright, Meetings & Conventions, M&C China, Web in Travel and Inntopia. Northstar is the industry leader in marketing solutions, custom content communications, content licensing and database management serving the travel and meetings industries. The company produces more than 52 face-to-face events, taking place in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Northstar is based in Secaucus, NJ, and is a portfolio company of Wasserstein & Co.
About Wasserstein Partners IV
Wasserstein Partners IV is a mid-market buyout fund managed by WP Capital Management, the private equity investment company formerly associated with Wasserstein Perella Group and Wasserstein & Co. The firm manages capital on behalf of institutional and individual investors. Its investment activities are focused on the media and communications, consumer products and water and industrial sectors. WP Capital's investment team has completed 27 platform acquisitions and 49 add-on acquisitions over a 23-year period. WP Capital is located in New York. For more information, visit www.wasserco.com.
