Recommend June 2013 - (Page 12)

tourtalk plans perfect destination weddings deserae del campo Perfection is hard to achieve, impossible even, but Travel Impressions, the leisure tour operator with more than 40 years in the business taking over six million travelers to destinations like Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, and South Africa, has the conﬁdence in their destination weddings program to place it front and center in the product name: Planned Perfect Destination Weddings by Travel Impressions. According to John Hanratty, executive v.p. and COO of Travel Impressions, “Planned Perfect Destination Weddings by Travel Impressions offers destination brides and grooms ﬁve-star treatment even before the wedding, including the planning and coordination of the wedding ceremony, reception and additional events surrounding their big day—allowing them to relax and enjoy.” The Planned Perfect Destination Weddings program is speciﬁcally for couples tying the knot in Mexico or the Dominican Republic. It provides the services of a wedding planner to assist with the mindnumbing particulars of preparing for the big day, from the creation of an outline and budget spreadsheet to a month-by-month timeline schedule. “The program offers a variety of different packages designed to ﬁt the speciﬁc needs of each wedding,” says Hanratty. The Deluxe package is really quite impressive, featuring a bullet list of planning and preparing tasks so the bride will only have to worry about her hairstyle and makeup (and making sure the groom shows up, of course). That bullet list includes trend updates via e-mail from a Planned Perfect wedding consultant on destination wedding fashion, style, and decor to planning the menu, ﬂower arrangements, a wedding checklist, spa treatments for the bride and groom, photography and videography, and 20 hours of personalized service from the consultant. For couples who want to up the ante, Travel Impressions also offers the Planned Perfect package, which throws in professional editing of wedding speeches, as well as help in planning the honeymoon and ﬁrst anniversary. The top-end VIP package, meanwhile, includes everything in both the Deluxe and Planned Perfect packages, plus a hometown visit from the Planned Perfect destination wedding consultant, and help in coordinating a day of pampering at the spa for the ladies and a day of golf for the gentlemen. It’s ﬁtting that Travel Impressions offers its destination weddings program only in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, since these continue to be the most popular locations for North American couples seeking a destination wedding. Hanratty says it’s “due to their close proximity and the abundance of service-oriented resorts, which are experienced and equipped to speciﬁcally cater to these special lifetime events.” Speciﬁcally, Cancun and the Riviera Maya continue to be the most requested destinations for destination weddings. Throughout the region, Travel Impressions offers a variety of wedding packages in different price ranges that vary from the Sky Weddings available at Azul Hotels, by Karisma to the Wedding Collections designed by celebrity wedding planner Colin Cowie, available at the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotels, and earlier this year the tour operator expanded its Caribbean portfolio to 18 additional properties in 11 different countries, from Barbados to Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico and Curaçao. Hanratty advises travel agents contact Travel Impressions for additional details on these and other wedding packages. “Travel Impressions has some of the best hotel partnerships in the industry, which is part of the reason we are so popular within the travel agent community,” he adds. “Many of our resort partners are targeting the wedding and honeymoon market, and as this is also a major focus of Travel Impressions, we engage these partners often to create exclusive promotions and incentives for agents and their clients.” And Hanratty points out that travel agents can recommend destination weddings beyond the Caribbean and Mexico. “There are a growing number of couples seeking more distant paradises that fall into the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ category such as Costa Rica, and Europe continues to hold its charm as well, particularly for couples who prefer the lure of cobblestone streets and sidewalk cafes to the sun and sand of tropical beach destinations,” he adds. In past issues, Recommend has featured stories on villa vacations across the globe, and Travel Impressions is also keeping a close watch on this particular trend by being the only full-service tour operator with a villa division, The Villa Experience, which Hanratty claims is an advantage for group travel, particularly destination weddings. “Travel Impressions is unique when it comes to destination weddings,” Hanratty says. “For starters, we only sell through agents so our reputation is everything. As a result, we set the bar extremely high when it comes to the properties and vendors that we work with.” In addition, for your same-sex couples interested in a ceremonial wedding service or traveling to celebrate their honeymoon, Travel Impressions has them covered with its Gay and Lesbian Travel program, an online vacation source for gay-friendly travel. In other words, Travel Impressions has all the bases covered for destination weddings and honeymoons of all stripes. contact information Travel Impressions: travimp.com 12 june 2013 12-13 TOUR TALK.indd 12 recommend.com 5/23/13 7:18 AM http://www.travimp.com http://www.recommend.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend June 2013

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk: Wedding Bells with Rosewood Hotels & Resorts
Tour Talk: Travel Impressions Plans Perfect Destination Weddings
Royal Clipper's Sail-Away Honeymoon
North American Nuptials
An Ode to Romance
Exchanging Vows in Mexico
Mexico's Honeymoon Retreats
Destination Wedding Powerhouses: A Marriage Made in Heaven
A Destination Wedding for Every Taste
Beach Blanket Bliss
Wonders-of-the-World Honeymoons
Paradise Found
Honeymooning in Ultimate Bliss
A European Rendezvous

Recommend June 2013