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Group Travel Family Attends South by Southwest

SALEM, Ohio — Travel leaders, bloggers, hustlers, gigs and bears — oh my! The face of group travel is changing as new generations of travel influencers enter the market with advanced avenues of gaining travel followings. This is great news for the travel industry.

The Group Travel Family monitors the movement of the travel industry and has led the sector for over 30 years, delivering development tools to travel leaders and the tourism industry alike. Charlie and Kathleen Presley recently attended the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, as part of The Group Travel Family research and development outreach.

“We were there with 80,000 of our closest friends,” Charlie Presley said with a smile. “Attending SXSW allows The Group Travel Family to advance technology and expose the travel industry to new ideas outside its norm.”

For example, because of contacts made by Presley at SXSW a few years ago, he delivered the first Remote Presence Technology to a travel conference. The robot allowed a DMO in Pennsylvania to keep appointments with travel planners at a conference in California.

This year’s attendance to SXSW brought a new awakening to group travel: awareness and development of a new breed of travel leader. These travel leaders are younger, hipper and more open-minded and, generally, have no clue they are travel planners because, like most of us, they have simply fallen into leading travel by mistake.

“I attended a meeting at SXSW of Women With Side Hustles and discovered that many were leading friends and family on planned travel, just like group leaders, travel planners and all the old names we have used for it,” Presley said. “Most of this group of 60 women considered the travel activity as a side hustle and were engaged in the activity not to make money, but because they enjoyed the pleasure that it provided their friends and family.”

Presley also engaged a meeting of people who considered their work in organizing travel for their friends as a travel gig. One person volunteers to plan a trip, a bunch of friends follow and tourism dollars are generated.

Travel bloggers were the third new set of group leaders Presley encountered, and while they are a slightly different animal, they also were attempting to influence groups of people to travel.

Travel leaders, bloggers, hustlers, gigs and bears — oh my! The face of group travel is changing as new generations of travel influencers enter the market with advanced avenues of gaining travel followings. This is great news for the travel industry.

The Group Travel Family monitors the movement of the travel industry and has led the sector for over 30 years, delivering development tools to travel leaders and the tourism industry alike. Charlie and Kathleen Presley recently attended the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, as part of The Group Travel Family research and development outreach.

“We were there with 80,000 of our closest friends,” Charlie Presley said with a smile. “Attending SXSW allows The Group Travel Family to advance technology and expose the travel industry to new ideas outside its norm.”

For example, because of contacts made by Presley at SXSW a few years ago, he delivered the first Remote Presence Technology to a travel conference. The robot allowed a DMO in Pennsylvania to keep appointments with travel planners at a conference in California.

This year’s attendance at SXSW brought a new awakening to group travel: awareness and development of a new breed of travel leader. These travel leaders are younger, hipper and more open-minded and, generally, have no clue they are travel planners because, like most of us, they have simply fallen into leading travel by mistake.

“I attended a meeting at SXSW of Women With Side Hustles and discovered that many were leading friends and family on planned travel, just like group leaders, travel planners and all the old names we have used for it,” Presley said. “Most of this group of 60 women considered the travel activity as a side hustle and were engaged in the activity not to make money, but because they enjoyed the pleasure that it provided their friends and family.”

Presley also engaged with a meeting of people who considered their work in organizing travel for their friends as a travel gig. One person volunteers to plan a trip, a bunch of friends follow and tourism dollars are generated.

Travel bloggers were the third new set of group leaders Presley encountered, and while they are a slightly different animal, they also were attempting to influence groups of people to travel.