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Worldwide Attendance For MTS Whistler

By J.D. O'Connor
March 19, 2007

More than 1,200 mountain travel professionals are making travel plans of their own and booking flights for Whistler Resort, BC, and the 32nd Annual Mountain Travel Symposium scheduled for April 15-21. Organizers promise to keep them busy while they're in town, providing a venue conducive to the spending of millions in travel deals, while also giving them plenty to think about during this year's industry Forum.

They're coming from far and wide. In addition to the U.S. and Canada, travel specialists will be winging in to Whistler from Austria, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan to ply their trade at this year's symposium, the largest rendezvous of mountain travel professionals in North America.

"For the fourth consecutive year, both the Trade and Group Exchanges have sold out and this year we're seeing a 10 percent growth in participation over last year," said MTS organizer and partner Michael Pierson. "Although after 32 years, Mountain Travel Symposium is considered a 'mature' event, the exceptional productivity for both buyers and sellers is why the event continues to grow and attract more participants. Everyone recognizes that time and money have become increasingly precious commodities and this annual event really helps mountain travel representatives maximize both."

It's a little like speed dating, participants say.

In the first of two tradeshows at MTS, hundreds of reps and mountain operators from top U.S. and European ski destinations schedule brief, computer-matched appointments with tour operators, wholesalers, car rental agencies and airlines - all jostling for a piece of the millions of dollars worth of business done over the course of the six day event. A second tradeshow for Ski Club and Ski Group organizers will cap the symposium this year.

"The pace is intense because everyone at the Symposium understands that more business is transacted at these exchanges than at any other time of the year," Pierson said.

MTS comes on the heels of the Network 2007 Ski Tour Operators Association (SkiTops) gathering in Big Sky, MT., later this month, and coincides with the TELUS Ski and Snowboard Festival hosted at Whistler/Blackcomb the same week.

Organizers said this year's symposium will be broken down into three distinct parts, with 175 operators/wholesalers from 100 different companies from around the world taking part in the computer-matched Trade Exchange on April 16-17. A two-day professional development forum is planned for April 18-19, with four keynote presentations scheduled as well as a series of workshops, capped on April 20 when suppliers and tour operators meet individually with decision-makers for ski clubs and ski councils from around the U.S. during the Group Exchange.

Keynote presentations on April 18-19 include Greg Stielstra, author of Pyromarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them for Life, Guy Kawasaki, formerly of Apple Computers and author of The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, and Michelle Peluso, president and CEO of Travelocity. A fourth general session launches five distinct learning tracks spearheded by specialists in their respective fields.

Workshops will follow.

"This will undoubtedly be one of the most dynamic Symposium's in years," said Ralf Garrison, Symposium owner and Forum director. "We have an exceptional line-up of speakers to fire up some inspired thinking and actions by participants, two international trade exchanges with tour operators and mountain representatives from more than a dozen countries, incredible skiing and snowboarding at one of the North's top resorts, and we'll cap it off with all the competitions, fun, music, and celebrations that are trademarks of the TELUS Festival."

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