Dream Vacations Secures Four Coveted 2024 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (October 17, 2024) – Travel Weekly, a top travel industry trade publication, recognized Dream Vacations with four Magellan Awards. With a record number of entries from across the U.S. and around the world, the Magellan Award winners represent the best in the travel industry and salute the outstanding travel professionals behind it all.
We are extremely excited that the work of our team was recognized from such a prestigious listing,” said Drew Daly, senior vice president and general manager for Dream Vacations. “The 2024 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards are an indication of our ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence within the travel industry. We provide our network of travel advisors with the tools and support they need to succeed, and these wins show our unwavering dedication to their success.”
Gold Winners
The Dream Vacations NASDAQ Billboard in Times Square and D.C. Metro Ads combined for nearly 19 million impressions. The billboard design featured the Dream Vacations brand and a QR code that drove traffic to its Q1 sweepstakes resulting in increased lead generation for travel advisors, brand awareness, and promoted the value of a travel advisor. The billboards also increased overall visibility and website traffic when a consumer searched for an agent on the corporate website via our Agent Directory.
Dream Vacations, just like its parent company, World Travel Holdings, has created a culture of giving. Dream Vacations Gives Back takes a wholistic approach to enriching community. All employees are given a paid Volunteer Day to support an organization of their choice. The company’s signature charity is Make-A-Wish®, and since 2011 its employees and the Dream Vacations network of travel advisors have donated more than $1.6 million to help grant wishes to more than 140 children with critical illnesses. Additionally, every year on the anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., our office hosts a moment of silence to remember the victims and to honor those impacted by the event. This year, employees wrote a boxful full of cards to benefit Cards for Hospitalized Kids, who distribute cards to sick children across the country. In addition, Dream Vacations recruited military veterans to enlist in its 13th annual, award-winning “Operation Vetrepreneur: Become Your Own General” contest. Dream Vacations will be awarding three veterans a free franchise as part of the nationwide contest that since 2012, has given away 61 franchises valued at more than $700,000 dollars.
Silver Winners
Dream Vacations took its training offerings to the next level by creating and launching three new educational series to enrich travel advisors who make up its vast network. The Foundation Series, the Masterclass Series, and the Business Intensive classes all target travel advisors with the appropriate experience levels to curate content enhancing their knowledge and know-how.
Dream Vacations hosted its first-ever Marketing and Technology (MarTech) Summit,an evolution of the company’s successful Marketing Summits in 2022 and 2023. This year’s featured keynote speakers were Margie Jordan on keeping up with what’s trending on social media marketing, Google advertising for small business owners with Pamela Starr and LinkedIn Learning’s number one trainer on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dave Birss.
Some of the standout sessions during the two-day summit included:
- Cruise Control Tools
- List Import, Export and Segmentation from Cruise Control
- Creating Trackable Links to Track Campaign ROI
- Working With Microsoft Excel
- Working With Exchange Online
- Leveraging Marketing Programs to Increase Sales
- Customizing Cruise Control
- Applying Scrum Principles to Your Business Planning
The Magellan Awards honor outstanding design, marketing and services in a broad range of industry segments including Hospitality, Travel Destinations, Cruise Lines, Online Travel Services, Airlines and Airports, Travel Agents and Agencies, Tour Operators and Ground Transportation.
“The entries that are recognized in the 17th annual Travel Weekly Magellan Awards demonstrate that the industry is more than up to the task attracting consumer attention amidst a din of competing messages” said Arnie Weissmann, editor in chief of Travel Weekly. “Once again, your peers have produced inspiring promotional campaigns and travel product designs. I’ve been involved in every Magellan program from its inception, and this year’s group has impressed me like none that came before.”
The Magellan Awards are judged and overseen by a one-of-a-kind panel of top travel professionals representing the best names and most accomplished leaders from the industry. In determining winners, entries do not compete with one another, instead they are judged against a standard of excellence based on the long experience of Travel Weekly. To uphold this high standard of excellence, a category may have multiple winners or may have no winners at all.
For a complete list of winners, please visit www.travelweeklyawards.com.
Those passionate about travel with an entrepreneurial spirit who would like to be part of a travel agency network that cares more about its agents and travelers, should visit www.DreamVacationsFranchise.com to learn about franchising with Dream Vacations.
About Dream Vacations
Travel agents with the top-ranked home-based travel agency franchise Dream Vacations have the resources to plan and create seamless vacation experiences for their customers while offering the best value. A member of the International Franchise Association, Dream Vacations is part of World Travel Holdings and has received franchise partner of the year, a top-ranking status, by all the major cruise lines as well as national recognition for its support of military veterans. For more information about Dream Vacations, visit www.DreamVacationsFranchise.com. Like Dream Vacations on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DreamVacationsFranchise, follow on Twitter at @Dream_Franchise and watch its videos at http://www.youtube.com/DreamVacationsBusiness.
About Travel Weekly
Travel Weekly is the most influential provider of news, research, opinion, and analysis to the North American travel trade marketplace. It reaches a broad industry audience in print, online and with face-to-face events throughout the year. Travel Weekly is a division of Secaucus, New Jersey-based Northstar Travel Media, the largest travel business-to-business travel publisher in the world.
About Northstar Travel Group
Northstar Travel Group is the leading B-to-B information and marketing solutions company serving all segments of the travel industry including leisure/retail, corporate/business travel, corporate and sports meetings, incentives, hospitality, and travel technology. Northstar is the owner of leading brands serving these travel segments. The company produces more than 100 face-to-face events in 13 countries in retail travel, hospitality, corporate travel, travel technology, sports travel, and the meetings & incentive industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research and event producer serving the travel technology industry. Northstar
Travel Group owns the BHN Group, the leading producer of hotel investment conferences.
Northstar is also the majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software business serving the mountain destination, golf, activities, and hospitality markets. Based in Rutherford, NJ, the company has seven offices in the U.S., UK, and Singapore. Northstar Travel Group is owned by funds managed by EagleTree Capital.
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