Luxury Travel Advisor - October 2008 - (Page 47)

THE COASTLINE TRAVEL ADVISORS TEAM: “I am very proud that every one of my staff members has a four-year degree. They have all traveled the world as well, says Jay Johnson, president of Coastline Travel Advisors. “What they lack in experience, they more than make up for with passion. ” Trust me: In this business, passion comes across loud and clear to the consumer. ” From left to right: Vanessa Sawtell-Jones, manager of sales and marketing; Leah Smith, president of Meridian Prime; Leah Bergner, sales consultant; Kate Mulder, director of sales and marketing; Caitlin Murphy, travel consultant and Donna Padilla, travel consultant. strife within the country, Johnson was driving to an industry function with Vanessa Sawtell-Jones and Kate Mulder. It soon became clear that they were all but bursting to share a concept with him. “We were driving down to this event and they said, ‘Oh my God, we’re so excited right now. We’ve got this great idea! Why don’t we get the Kenya tourism board and some of the tour operators and do a big event in Los Angeles inviting consumers to come back to Kenya?’” Johnson tried to veto the idea. Wasn’t it too early after the troubles? Who would attend such an event? How could they drive publicity? But, sometimes, youth trumps sagacity. Every roadblock he put up was knocked down. “They just kept saying, ‘No, there’s no reason why we can’t do this!’” The moment was a flashpoint for Johnson. “My head was just spinning and I was thinking, ‘I’m so lucky right now. This is great! I’d built this great, young, fun group that is so excited to be in the travel business. They don’t know that you can’t do these things.’” Johnson’s young group brought a high level of energy to the annual Virtuoso Travel Mart this past August. Up until four years ago, Johnson’s prior staff of agents would bail on attending, considering the intense appointment schedule with vendors too arduous. As a result, Johnson had to beg his father-in-law, who’s not even in the travel business, to join him at the show just so he’d have another body to sit at the table with him. This year, Johnson had to all but shut down his office because all of his agents were dying to attend. Leah Smith was also at Travel Mart this year, having just received her MBA degree from Cornell. She had promised to return to Coastline Travel Advisors in another capacity—and, indeed, she has: She is the president of Meridian Prime, a business she owns with Johnson. Plans for next spring include focusing on custom programs in emerging markets where the U.S. dollar is still strong, such as Southeast Asia, Latin and South America, www.luxuryta.com October 2008 | LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR 47 http://www.luxuryta.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Travel Advisor - October 2008

Luxury Travel Advisor - October 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter Glasgow Greece & Cyprus Private Islands Park Hotel Weggis Mexico Private Yachts MS Europa Coastline Travel Awards of Excellence The Pulse Just Back Luxury Travel Expo Sightings Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.