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Are there travel suppliers doing it right in terms of representing Black travelers and travel advisors ?
SPANN : We ’ ve had some companies come to us […] like Hurtigruten . Right away , they came and wanted to be a member . Quark Expeditions did come to us to present to our group because to them , it ’ s a market that ’ s new and if you want to grow your business , you need to go where that growth is going to be , so come directly to the clientele .
Royal Caribbean has been doing a lot to get themselves in the right space for heading up this demographic in the new year . They ’ ve had a lot of success . Apple Leisure Group Vacations has come on board . American Airlines , Vacation Express , Delta Vacations , ID Travel Group , Emerging Destinations , Wanderlust . Miami ’ s tourism board is on board along with Los Cabos Tourism Board , KHM Travel Group , Crissa Hotels in Jamaica and NYC & Company . I think they deserve the recognition .
HARRISON : Our relationships with our partners are not strictly transactional . They are supporting us because they believe in what we do , and it ’ s not solely based on the number of sales our members are bringing to them .
Who is the right-fit travel advisor for ABTP ? SPANN : Our organization is really for everyone . We use the word “ professional ” for a reason . We didn ’ t use the word “ agent ” because we do see the organization growing as an umbrella , so under that umbrella would be social media , could be content , could be journalism . It could be all of those things . We do have a strong focus toward travel agents .
We create what we call a safe space ; we want people to be able to come and ask questions , we want people to be able to learn . So , if they have a lot of experience , we have [ resources ] for them and if they ’ re very new , we have [ resources ] for them as well . We run the gamut . Any agent of any background can join . It ’ s not like only Black agents can join .
ADKINS : It just goes back to our philosophy of , if you look around the room and there are not Black agents there , then that ’ s the problem . We want other agents of other ethnicities to be a part of ABTP so that they can start sharing that narrative , because sometimes they ’ re in a room where we aren ’ t .
One of your goals is to quantify the revenue impact of Black travelers and travel advisors . How is that going ?
ADKINS : We ’ re working on getting our own ABTP certification number so we ’ re still working through the processes for that . We ’ ve been talking to some of the suppliers who have come on board now so that our agents can have their own number if they don ’ t have one of the other accreditations , or they want to move away from one of the other accreditations . So that will be big in helping us quantify those numbers . Like Shawnta said [ earlier ], it ’ s not just about the
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