With over one-third of all international arrivals visiting New York City in 2016, the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut is home to over 160 receptive tour operators. Many have relocated out of Manhattan to more affordable space, making in-office visits nearly impossible. They use these relationships to generate business, keeping overhead low by operating out of their homes. This environment has made in-office sales calls infinitely more challenging and less efficient as one can now take up to five days to visit 15 operator offices in the area. RTO Summit is a marketplace and conference bringing together Receptive tour operators with destinations and suppliers. The New York edition is the only event that brings together operators with suppliers and destinations under one roof in an intimate environment. This year, more than 50 tour operators met just over 100 travel suppliers and DMOs for a day of 10-minute, face-to-face appointments in an intense business appointment atmosphere, prefaced by a networking breakfast and with a luncheon at mid-day.
The History of RTO Summit
The RTO Summit series was created in 2003 and has been tested, improved by hundreds of North American travel suppliers and receptive tour operator buyers who cover all the major and developing international markets.
We host the buyers and bring them together under one roof, so you spend less to meet with the people who need to know you.
Each RTO Summit program opens with a Symposium, a full day of international inbound trends, market intelligence, and panels that feature tour operators talking about their business, offering fresh insights on their booking trends–all designed to make the next day’s appointments most productive.
One-on-one scheduled appointment sessions on day two take place in an intimate environment, where attendance is limited to the buyer/seller ratio of 1 to 1.8—the best in the industry.
Why You Should Attend RTO Summit:
BENEFITS FOR SELLERS:
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Develop new International business : Instead of taking one-to-two weeks to coordinate appointments on their own, sellers meet 14-18 RTO’s in pre-qualified appointments in just one day.
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The best buyer-seller ratio in the industry : We limit the number of sellers so that attendees can maximize the number of buyers they meet.
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Uncluttered selling environment : We purposely market to sellers outside of Los Angeles, New York, and Orlando as operators already have access to those organizations anytime. This prevents our attendees from feeling like the trailing spouse at a high school reunion.
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Personalized Service : Our unique ratio allows us to provide valuable advance intelligence about each buyer’s interests and, where possible, our staff offers informal introductions on-site.
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Timely Presentation Topics : Presentation sessions will not only provide information from leading RTO’s as to their advance bookings but also peer into the future with a look at trends and what’s new and how to market destinations and products to the international market online.
BENEFITS FOR BUYERS:
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New Connections : With up to 35 new and existing suppliers and DMO’s without having to travel.
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Flexibility : Ability to rotate staff from multiple departments to meet suppliers.
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New Ideas : Each seller is asked to bring three new product ideas to their appointments.
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Efficient Updates : Gather fresh information from 30-40 suppliers and destinations in one place.
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Less In-Office Disruption : Instead of having 30 sellers disrupting your office environment, you can meet them under one roof
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Help Find New Business : All operators receive Free inclusion in the ReceptiveFinder on www.touroperatorland.com, the only search engine in the world that allows users to search for receptive operators by language is spoken in their office. ($1000 value).
A Receptive Tour Operator (RTO) is a U.S.-based company working as a liaison and booking agent in an international market. The RTO provides the link between a foreign travel agency selling a tour package to Louisiana and all the elements or stops on that tour in our state. The NAJ RTO summits offer productive meetings with foreign tour operators with U.S.-based Receptive Tour Operators.“Receptive Tour Operators, or RTOs, is the cornerstone of tourism businesses that help us promote our state to global markets including China, Europe, Latin America, and Australia,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. “Tourists from other countries stay longer and spend more money compared to domestic visitors, so it’s a natural fit to send our marketing team to these tourism summits.”
Three RTO Summits (East, West, and Orlando), Active America China as well as the Inbound Report and TourOperatorLand.com will join the Connect Travel portfolio, which includes the Connect Travel Marketplace, Connect Tour and the Connect THRIVE Summit.RTO Summit East is the only event in New York that brings together operators with suppliers and destinations under one roof in an intimate environment where they can have between 15-20 appointments in one day.The NAJ RTO Summit West in Los Angeles attracts more than 100 receptive tour operators, 40 percent of which are Chinese RTOs. It’s now NAJ’s largest RTO event. Other NAJ RTO Summits will be held in April in New York City and in October in Orlando, FL.
“The NAJ RTO summits serve Louisiana tourism efforts efficiently. The shows are productive and you meet one-on-one with product managers who actually decide the product to market in Louisiana,” said Assistant Secretary Doug Bourgeois. Sausalito, Calif. -- Like the circus, NAJ's RTO Summit rolls into town once a year. Orlando is high on the list of cities with the largest concentration of receptive tour operators, and a hot spot for conducting business with those serving international inbound traffic, especially from Latin America and Europe.“North American Journeys has been an innovator in B2B tourism marketing since 1996,” said Will Seccombe, president of Connect Travel. “We look forward to working with Jake Steinman and his team to continue to deliver extraordinary opportunities for our travel industry partners.”
RTO Summit West is now NAJ’s largest RTO event attracting over 100 receptive operators, 40% of which are Chinese RTOs. Since LAX serves as the primary gateway from Asia, nearly all Japanese and Chinese operators are headquartered here, as well as European-based RTOs who service and operator National Park and Western programs.At the event, the NAJ Group selected a small handful of companies to receive the honor of their “Coolest New Products” award. As described by one of the judges in the selection process, “‘Coolness’ is classically defined as something that is fashionable and impressive at the same time. Beyond that, it’s hard to define but we all know it when we see it.” With only five products being selected for this award, it is our pleasure to announce that your favorite new Las Vegas exotic driving experience is one of the lucky few.
Some of the key takeaways which were presented at RTO Summit West include:
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2018 International Visitor Forecast – projected to grow by 3.9% YOY
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Exchange Rates – rates have rebounded, with the Euro, British pound and Mexican peso rising more than 10% on the U.S. dollar from Jan 2017-Jan 2018; this may help attract more international visitors to the U.S.
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Destination Drivers – food and culinary experiences will continue to be an important factor in selecting a destination
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Chinese Visitors to the U.S. – self driving trips are on the rise as are partially independent travelers (P.I.T.s) from China
What Are the Benefits to RTOs?
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Meet new suppliers and destinations that can help develop new products
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Find out What’s New and share it with your colleagues
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Forge new relationships that can help solve problems in the future
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Learn how to sell higher-margin MICE travel
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Increase RFQ conversions
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Convenience–meet new people and form relationships without having to leave Florida
The RTO Summits take place in the three major gateway cities where the highest concentration of receptive operators is headquartered. Sometimes overlooked or misunderstood, this channel of international distribution is responsible for over 20 million room nights sold to FITs, MICE groups, leisure groups, escorted groups and fly-drive programs. In the larger RTO offices, each of these segments is staffed by folks who simply don’t have the time or budget to attend the major trade shows. That, of course, means building trust by taking a sales trip to visit every one of them in their offices. How much time and money would that require? We estimate that each office visit costs $243 in travel expenses, staff time away from the office and time to schedule appointments with the right influencers to start the trust-building process. That works out to $4,375 to meet the same number of operators that attendees at the RTO Summits can meet in appointment sessions.
By staging the RTO Summits in New York, Los Angeles, and Orlando, NAJ makes it convenient for the buyers to be there in force. Multiple influencers from the same company attend so they can meet new sellers who can help them expand and develop product offerings. They want to personally meet the sellers to trust them to contract with them. We also limit the number of sellers so that each attendee has between 18-20 meetings in one day and we provide a “follow-up Concierge” to help facilitate business when there is a need for a neutral intermediary to move things along.
Currently, RTOs concede much of that business to American Express and other corporate travel specialists because they don’t know how to sell or service it, and they lack product knowledge. As the system operates now, RTOs react to RFPs from international clients and end up getting into “bake-offs” in which they believe the lowest price wins the business. Price alone is not the key factor; the MICE segment is business-driven by creativity, service and product knowledge in which unique confidence in execution is paramount.RTO Summit Florida will focus on areas like adventure, travel and tourism, international hospitals, dental clinics, cosmetic procedure providers, health travel facilitators and accreditation bodies, holiday, travel, transportation, etc.RTO Summit West was founded in 2003 to help suppliers and destinations meet L.A.-based RTOs without having to navigate the Los Angeles freeway system.
RTO Summit West was founded in 2003 to help suppliers and destinations meet L.A.-based RTOs without having to navigate the Los Angeles freeway system. It is now our largest RTO event attracting over 100 receptive operators in 2017, 40 percent of which were Chinese RTOs. Since LAX serves as the primary gateway from Asia, nearly all Japanese and Chinese operators are headquartered here, as well as European-based RTOs who service and operator National Park and Western programs.Over the past few years, more receptive tour operators have opened headquarters or tour operations in Florida in order to take advantage of its great weather, reasonably priced office space and the 55 million travelers who visit the area’s theme parks each year. Florida now is home to over 120 receptive companies most of which service Latin American markets, Europe and increasingly, Asia and the Middle East.
About the Receptive Tour Operator (RTO) Channel
What is a Receptive Operator?
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Wholesaler to overseas wholesalers
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Financial intermediary between U.S. suppliers (hotels/attractions) and international wholesalers.
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Develops products and contracts with hotels and attractions.
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Some aggregate hotels for resale via int’l travel agents.
Products / Services They Offer
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FIT online booking systems
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Escorted group tours
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Fly-Drive programs
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Act as DMCs for international business
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International leisure groups
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M.I.C.E. tour programs
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Meet-and-greet and ground services
Advantages of Working with Receptive Operators:
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Most efficient way to access international travelers
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One RTO can place your product in as many as 70 countries
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RTOs deliver business during off-peak times
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RTOs help overcome language barriers
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RTOs have access to international groups and M.I.C.E
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RTOs assume currency and financial risk of collections
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RTOs require issuing relatively few contracts
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RTOs move distressed inventory at yields higher than OTA’s w/ less risk to brand image
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RTOs indirectly provide FREE ADVERTISING in overseas markets
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By placing your products in tour operator brochures, RTOs can generate unexpected direct bookings for hotels
Connect Travel has an ongoing informational relationship with all major receptive operators. Over 600 RTO's from 80 companies are among the 3,500 registered buyers that use the Tour Operator website. We leverage our relationship to recruit RTO's that work with all international source markets.RTO Summit West aims to help suppliers and destinations meet L.A.-based RTOs without having to navigate the Los Angeles freeway system. It will cover areas like Inbound trends, market intelligence, and panels that feature tour operators talking about their business, offering fresh insights on their booking trends all designed to make the next day’s appointments most productive.
