“He wanted the content to have integrity and for people to be able to trust what they were reading in the magazine,” Sparrow said.
Lacy said he is also committed to youth. People often make the mistake of getting stuck in their own generation, he said, so Lacy purposely surrounds himself with young, talented people, which is “key to continuing to evolve,” he said.
If the group travel industry has suffered from one stigma, it’s the clinging stereotype that it’s something people do only when they’re old, a generalization Lacy has fought for years. Friends, coworkers and organizations often spontaneously form travel groups, and group tourism evolves every day, he said.
“Group travel is about all ages,” Lacy said. “Travel certainly tends to keep somebody young, keeps somebody pointed toward the horizon, pointed toward places they’ve never been before, all of which feeds an independence and a youthful zest for life.”
Over the years, the magazine grew and evolved from a basic newsprint publication to the beautiful, high-end magazine it is today, with issues ranging from 52 to 108 pages. The first edition and the most recent issue look so different, “you wouldn’t know it’s the same publication,” Sparrow said.
The company grew, as well. Lacy and Presley twice started new magazines under The Group Travel Leader umbrella and corresponding conferences under The Group Travel Family. The partners launched Bank Travel Management magazine in May 1993 to serve the banking and finance travel industry. In 2012, the magazine was rebranded as Select Traveler to also include travel for education and alumni groups, and chamber of commerce sectors. In February 1997, the duo published the first issue of Going On Faith to speak directly to church groups and faith-based travel planners.
Today, The Group Travel Leader publishes three magazines, and The Group Travel Family operates six annual conferences as well as year-round TravelTalks.
“The synergies between the two have been beautiful because we’ve been the [conferences] and trade show operation on the group travel side, then the magazine has been a mouthpiece; so it’s a perfect relationship,” Presley said. “We’ve simply played off each other.”
The Group Travel Leader expanded again in 2005 when Lacy and Presley bought a historic building in downtown Lexington, formerly a local dive bar, and converted it into offices. Even 10 years later, an occasional patron still stops in looking for a drink.
In July 2012, when Sparrow stepped aside as executive editor and into the role of senior writer, Brian Jewell took over the helm of all three magazines. But Jewell was hardly new to the company; he had been a full-time staff writer since 2004.
