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Andrea Williams Named 2017 Romance Travel Forum Selects Dynamic Sellers for Advisory Board

2017 Romance Travel Forum Selects Dynamic Sellers for Advisory Board

(Boston, MA – March 8, 2017) Romance Travel Forum, an exclusive program for top-performing travel sellers, has announced its selection of members for the 2017 Advisory Board, with a position for a final candidate, to be selected through a unique talent search from previous years’ delegates.

Now entering its fourth year, the 2017 Romance Travel Forum will take place at the Paradisus Palma Real in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from June 19 – 23, and is the industry’s leading event for the North American romance vacation market, focused on destination weddings, honeymoons and other romantic occasions celebrated with travel.  All travel agent positions filled on a stringent multi-tiered qualification process.  Supplier representation will comprise 85 companies including global destinations, commissionable romance vacation options and key resources for the romance vacation specialist.

The Advisory Board will collaborate with the Romance Travel Forum Management team to develop content, special engagements and other particulars, that will impact the overall event experience.

The Advisory Board for the 2017 Forum include:

 

Shalene Dudley

Shalene Dudley transitioned to the travel industry full-time after a very successful 15 year career as a construction project manager.  With a bachelor of arts in Interior Design from Michigan State on her resume, she moved to Orlando, FL to follow her passion in hospitality design.  Like a dream come true, her first real position was Junior Designer/Imagineer with Walt Disney Imagineering in Lake Buena Vista, FL.   She became a certified PMP (Project Management Professional) in 2006 and now applies her knowledge to assist her clients with planning, budgeting and executing their plans for a memorable travel experience.   Her success and ability to effectively network has provided opportunities to partner with Hudson’s Bay locations across the Greater Toronto Area as well as develop relationships with Kleinfeld Bridal.  In 2015, Shalene won the PAX News Award of Excellence for “Rookie of the Year-2014″and was named one of “6 Travel Professionals You Should Be Following on Facebook” by Canadian Traveler magazine.   Her passion is to engage her new brides by applying her own experience planning her destination wedding in 2009 at Sandals Royal Caribbean.  She is now the Owner/Lead Travel Designer of Latitude Concierge Travels located in Toronto, Ontario.

 

Sharon Little-Campbell

Sharon Campbell Little, is the president / owner of award winning Wedding and Honeymoon Travel group specializing in full-service worldwide romance travel.

Originally born in Edinburgh Scotland with a travel career spanning over 25 years, twelve of those years were spent working overseas for Thomas Cook one of the largest tour operators in the world. Sharon has now settled in Southern California and describes herself as a passionate and hopeless romantic who simply loves love. Since emigrating to the US in 2009 Sharon has built her romance travel company within the niche of destination weddings and honeymoons. Sharon has been the recipient of many top seller awards with hotels and preferred tour operator partners and is #1 Selling agency for the island of Jamaica. Under her leadership, Wedding and Honeymoon travel group has helped more than 5000 couples to have a destination wedding in the Caribbean.

Most recently Sharon was honored with Top 25 All Star Awards from Travel Agent Magazine. With her vast travel expertise and years of experience Sharon now serves on the JTB agent advisory board. Sharon is also a TEAM ambassador for host agency TPI as she is passionate about helping agents become successful and growing their business in the travel industry and mentors many travel agents across the country.

 

Tom Varghese

Tom is the Chancellor of Travel (Owner) at Travel Tom. Tom has a strong passion for travel and is dedicated to providing a wonderful customer experience.  With degrees in Economics and Business Administration, he started his career on Wall Street where he ran the Analyst Desk for JJ Kenney/Standard & Poors before moving into B2B E-Commerce and Supply Chain logistics developing new products to enable suppliers and customers to conduct business with each other seamlessly.  Wall Street called him back and he accepted a position as Vice President at JP Morgan where he ran a Supplier Services Organization for the Americas responsible for implementing e-commerce and e-invoicing solutions for the Bank’s large customers.

Tom entered the travel industry in 2002 while continuing to work on Wall Street, choosing to indulge his love of travel as a part-time travel consultant.  In 2011, he decided to pursue his true passion to be a full-time travel consultant and gave the Bank his 2 weeks’ notice.  “Travel Tom” is a recognized leader in the travel industry and has won numerous awards and distinctions as an expert within this space.  He has won Travel Impressions prestigious Globe Award for 2014 as well as top awards from his suppliers such as Hyatt Resorts (Hyatt 5-0), Sandals (Chairmans Royal Club), Palace Resorts (Platinum Agency) and Karisma (Diamond Level Agency).  He makes a point of personally visiting most of the destinations he sells and has formed partnerships and alliances with hotel owners, tour operators and others to ensure his clients have an exceptional travel experience.

 

Andrea Williams

Andrea Williams is an award-winning Certified Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Travel Consultant and one of the top booking agents for the island of Jamaica.  She started her travel career in Jamaica at the age of 17, working for top resorts and the national airlines’ vacation tour wholesaler.  Andrea migrated to Miami, earned a degree in Travel & Tourism Management from Florida International University.  With her passion and love for travel, she started Exquisite Vacations, Inc., a full-service travel agency based in Miami, Florida.  She’s been specializing in honeymoons, destination weddings and family travel since 2004.

“The Romance Travel Forum continues to evolve, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to work with these individuals who will undoubtedly contribute tremendously to help shape the 2017 event.  Each of these individuals bring a wealth of knowledge, commitment, accomplishments and unique strengths to the table, and with the influence of their expertise, we have no doubt 2017 will be our best program yet!” said Jennifer Fernandez, Vice President Events & Content, Specialty Travel Forums.

 

About Specialty Travel Forums 

Romance Travel Forum is produced by Specialty Travel Forums, a division of Travel Show Marketing Group (TravelSMG), an independent event organizer who caters exclusively to the North American travel agent community.  The Specialty Travel Forums division offers innovative programming and content to support the professional growth of travel agents eager to cultivate their business and expertise through specialization. Comprised of a series of exclusive independent programs in key destinations, each is focused on individual niche markets providing in-depth training, brand certification, intimate networking, supplier relations, product knowledge and more. These exclusive programs offer limited space, allowing delegates to gain focused niche training while experiencing a full familiarization of the host destination to increase the breadth of their specialty offerings. The TravelSMG team has a proven track record in producing some of the most acclaimed leisure travel trade shows and events, working collaboratively with the industry’s leading organizations and experts, to provide top-notch education, networking and supplier engagement.   For more information on TravelSMG visit www.TravelSMG.com