AAA Travel 11-10-09

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Live Presentations
OnDemand
AAA Diamond Rating Program

AAA Inspector – AAA recently named the hotel and restaurant recipients of the coveted AAA 5 Diamond Awards. This session will address the qualifications needed to earn a 5 Diamond rating and also explain what to look for in 2, 3 and 4 Diamond hotels and restaurants.

Back to Nature, Shooting the Natural World

Julie Quarry, whose photos have been featured in Popular Photography, Conde Nast Traveler and many other travel magazines, provides practical "how to" information on capturing that perfect photo of your destination vacation.

Escorted Tours - Is This The Vacation Option For You?

Marc Kazlauskas, President, Insight Vacations. Learn about escorted tours, the benefits of an escorted tour, and whether this vacation option is for you.

Everything You Need For Travel

Sandra Furlong, Communication Manager, AAA Travel. Are you prepared for your next travel experience? Join Sandra as she discusses everything you will need for your next travel experience – all in the convenience of one location.

On-Demand
Presentations
AAA TravelViews
Alex Sharpe
Alex Sharpe is a 13 year veteran of Regent Seven Seas Cruises working in several different capacities over his career. As Regent Seven Seas Cruises grew from a small 2-ship cruise line into the leader in the luxury space, Alex too had the opportunity to grow. His start was in the Charter & Incentive Sales department, but quickly, Alex was tagged to develop the company’s Revenue Management department. In 2004 he was moved into Sales as the Director of Sales Development and then in 2006 moved back into a role of Vice President of Revenue and Destination Management with a broader scope including reporting, tactical and strategic promotion creation, fleet pricing and deployment. In 2008, Alex was asked to lead our sales and marketing efforts as Vice President of National and Key Accounts and is currently focused on growing our business with these partners by developing new programs and pushing our promotion and marketing plans forward.
Bill Wood, Paul Mann
Bill Wood has some 27 years of reporting and travel information experience coast to coast in North America. As executive editor at AAA Publishing, his publications include Traveling with Your Pet: The AAA PetBook®. This book is a comprehensive source for assisting animals and their humans in preparing for a fun and hassle-free trip. Updated annually, the guide features more than 13,000 pet-friendly AAA Approved hotels and campgrounds, and attractions that your companions will love.

Paul Mann is the Founder and CEO of FETCH! Pet Care, the largest pet sitting franchise in the United States, serving thousands of clients in hundreds of cities and towns from coast to coast. Mann founded FETCH! Pet Care in 2002 as a San Francisco Bay Area local pet sitting and dog walking service, and, after experiencing rapid growth and profitability, launched this first-of-its-kind franchise-based business in 2004. Through Mann's leadership, FETCH! Pet Care has established itself as the nation's largest and most sophisticated professional pet care network. In his current capacity, Mann oversees all FETCH! Pet Care franchise sales, corporate marketing and communications, as well as franchisee training and support.
Carolyn Spencer Brown
Carolyn Spencer Brown, one of America’s leading cruise journalists, is Editor in Chief of Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com), the industry’s most prominent outlet for consumer-oriented cruise travel news and information. In this role, she oversees all editorial planning, development and implementation for Cruise Critic, as well as CruiseCritic.co.uk, its U.K.-based sister Web site. Spencer Brown formerly covered the cruise industry as a staff writer for the travel section of The Washington Post, where she wrote about numerous other facets of traveling. She was the original contributor to “Coming and Going,” the newspaper’s weekly travel news column, and author of other news, trend and destination-oriented features.
Deb Abraham, Jacque Busby

DEB ABRAHAM - EDITOR
Author, cultural historian and professor, Deb Abraham joined Luxury Travel Magazine in 2006 to share her perspectives on international destinations and experiences. "Travel enriches our lives and offers endless variety," she explains. "My job is to introduce our readers to the possibilities!" Deb is a member of International Society for Travel Writers.

JACQUE SALENTINE BUSBY - CONTRIBUTING TRAVEL EDITOR
Jacque is a seasoned world traveler with 25 years of experience in the travel industry. Her personal travel love is yachting and she has journeyed extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Jacque is an active member of ASTA and also serves on the Luxury Travel Advisory Board, Connoisseur Club three years in a row and is a Platinum Travel Society member.

Family Travel
Gerald Bernhoft- Director of National Accounts
Gerald Bernhoft has been with Holland America Line for 24 years. He started when the cruise company only had 3 ships in their fleet. Now the fleet has 14 ships. Prior to Holland America Line, Gerald worked with their sister company Princess Cruises and Tours for 8 years. Gerald has seen many changes in the cruise industry over the years and according to him it keeps getting better.
Glen MacDonell
Glen Mac Donell oversees the AAA preferred hotel program on behalf of AAA, a not-for-profit federation of 65 motor clubs that serves more than 51 million members in the United States and Canada. Additionally he manages the airline, rail and specialty tour programs for AAA Travel.
Glen joined AAA in 1999 after serving 12 years with United Airlines, and has traveled extensively during his 21 years in the travel business.
Gretchen Anderson

Gretchen Anderson, the Director of Product Development for AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah

During more than fifteen years in the travel industry, Gretchen has designed exclusive tours that have sent AAA Members to all seven continents. With a passion for ecotourism and a strong commitment to traveling responsibly, Gretchen led AAA NCNU in becoming the first AAA Club to join the World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism and currently sits on the governing body.

Hawaii Speaker
Heather Lemire
Heather Lemire
Product Markeing Account Executive, Cruisetours
Royal Caribbean International

Julie Quarry

Julie Quarry started shooting seriously just a few years ago while visiting the islands of Kuna Yala in Panama. For the first time in her life, she was handed an SLR, a PENTAX digital SLR, and was able to learn in real-time, minute-to-minute. In that nine-day trip how she saw the world was changed forever. She quickly discovered how to capture and visually explore the subject using her natural eye for light and design, but now she could easily share these found moments of beauty with others, and that was a both a thrill and a never-ending challenge. Julie currently shoots for tour companies capturing the experiences guests feel while on their lifetime journeys. She has been on the cover of publications such as Alaska Airlines, Horizon Magazine, VIA Magazine, and several travel brochures. Her work has also appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, Recommends, Cruise Travel Magazine, Vacations Magazine, the Traveler, Sojourns, Cruise & Travel Lifestyles, etc. (See Publication Samples.) Julie is proud to have been selected by Pentax to become one of their charter Pentaxian’s (see Julie Quarry-Video link PENTAXIAN) and has been featured in two issues of POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY Magazine highlighting her passion for travel photography and love for showing people the splendors of the world.

Laurie Peterson, Jeff Howe, Michael Mousseau, Tony Perrone

Laurie Peterson is the community manager for AAATravelViews, based in the AAA national office in Central Florida.

Jeff Howe is a travel counselor with AAA Washington in Seattle.

Michel Mousseau is a manager of AAA inspections for properties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico

Tony Perrone is a AAA account manager for properties in the Caribbean and Mexico.

Marc Kaslauskas

Marc has worked in the travel industry for over 15 years primarily holding executive level sales positions with Tauck, Orient Cruise Lines and Trafalgar Tours, where he started his career.

Currently, Marc is President of Insight Vacations, the leader in premium first-class escorted tours to Europe, the USA and Canada. He is responsible for overall growth and operations of the business. He has been with Insight since August of 2002 and is credited with increasing Insight’s sales to record breaking levels as well as securing partnerships with major industry accounts.

Mario Urquia
Mario began his travel career as a tour guide in his native Mexico in 1986. His Disney career in Florida began at the Disney Reservation Center in 1997. He is currently responsible for developing and facilitating training for travel industry clients from around the world and specializes in training travel professionals from Latin America.
Mark Junette
Mark Junette is Vice President of Contiki, the leading operator of Vacations for the 18-35 year-olds. Mark has held various Sales & Marketing positions in the travel industry for the past 11 years and joined Contiki in 2004. Contiki travels to more than 40 countries internationally by way of 100+ itineraries.
Mark Van Pelt
Mark’s Disney career began in 1991, and he has held a number of operational positions throughout Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. For the past 10 years, Mark has been with the Travel Industry Marketing team where he is responsible for developing and facilitating training programs for travel professional from all over the world and specializes in developing online courses.
Marybeth Bond-Women Travel Expert
Marybeth Bond is the nation’s preeminent expert on women travel — award-winning author of National Geographic’s Best Girlfriend Getaways Series, she’ll talk about her favorite destinations from her best-selling book: 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways.

Featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Marybeth will share her secrets with you, from her 11 books about women travel.

Marybeth offers specific advice and inspiration for the growing number of women -- young, old, single, married, divorced and widowed -- who are hitting the road.

Girlfriend Getaways: From “How to Celebrate Big Birthdays, Big City Blowouts and Small-Town Artsy Weekends to Adventure Escapes and Pampering Retreats.” Marybeth will share great ideas for women-only trips to celebrate milestones, renew old friendships and bond with daughters and sisters.
Michel Mousseau

Michel Mousseau is a regional manager of lodging and restaurant inspections with 23 years of AAA experience. He is responsible for inspections across Canada as well as in Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Mexico. Prior to that, he spent 10 years in the food and beverage industry in Western Canada.

Nancy Logan
Nancy Logan has over 15 years of experience in the travel industry. Nancy started her career as a travel agent, and then moved into the positions of Sales Account Manager for Brendan Worldwide Vacations, and Key Acccount Manager with Globus Vacations. In 2007, Nancy joined Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection as Manager of National Accounts and is responsible for the sales & marketing development of AAA National.
Pam Grout
Pam Grout is a hopeless romantic who still believes the world is a beautiful place, that people are noble and that anything is possible.
For a living (and she always wonders why people think that's such an important question), she writes books (National Geographic's recent 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life is her 15th) and articles for such magazines as People, Travel & Leisure and Cooking Light. She also enjoys writing bedtime stories for her daughter, but that's more about making a life than a living. She's keenly aware there's a huge difference.
In making a life, she has traveled to all the world's continents, learned 59 way to make a fort out of sofa cushions, perfected a mean tennis forehand and volunteered at a women's prison and a free health clinic.
Panel Discussion
Laurie Peterson is the community manager for AAATravelViews, based in the AAA national office in Central Florida.

Jeff Howe is a travel counselor with AAA Washington in Seattle.

Heidemarie Chernushin is a travel counselor with AAA East Central, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mike Mouser is an mapping and travel information expert in AAA’s national office in Central Florida.

Paul Wiseman
With more than 20 years experience, Paul comes to Trafalgar USA with a very impressive career across all sectors of the travel industry including retail, wholesale, and international and domestic airline operations.

To join us, Paul is leaving Australia where he has been Managing Director of that country’s Trafalgar Tours. Prior to Trafalgar Australia; he was General Manager for Contiki Holidays; and before that was Australian National Travel Agency Sales Manager for Avis rent-a-car. His entry into the industry was as a Leisure Travel Agent. During his six years as Managing Director of Trafalgar Australia, Paul drove the company to extraordinary successes.

He holds a Masters Degree in Tourism Management from the University of Technology, Sydney, and recently graduated from the Senior Manager Development Program at the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Rita Lewis
As a 24-year Travel Industry veteran, Rita began her career as a travel agent in Ellicott City, Maryland. Her first role at Disney was with the Walt Disney Travel Company and she has held roles in Human Resource Training & Development for the Disney Resorts and Sales areas. Since 1996, Rita has been responsible for developing and facilitating Disney Destination training programs for travel professionals from around the world.
Rudy Maxa
Rudy Maxa is a contributing editor with National Geographic Traveler magazine and one of America's premier consumer travel broadcasters on public radio and television. You may know him as "The Savvy Traveler" on public radio's business show, "Marketplace."
Sandra Furlong
Sandra Furlong, CTIE
AAA Travel Services provides complete travel solutions for AAA/CAA members and the traveling public. As the largest full-service leisure travel agency, the AAA network of over 1,000 offices and AAA.com offer a full range of travel services from requests for up to date travel information to assistance with worldwide tour or cruise packages and travel insurance. The goal of AAA Travel is to continue to be the most trusted brand in the travel industry.
Saul Fonseca
Susan Foster
As a consummate outsider/insider of the travel industry, Foster has become an authoritative media source regarding the ever-changing airline and TSA rules and guidelines as well as packing in general for almost any occasion. In November 2007, Foster hosted the “Dodge VANtastic Holiday Voyage” challenges in Charlotte, NC and Minneapolis, MN offering simple tips for families, showing them how to pack more efficiently so vehicle travel can be more enjoyable for everyone. She is also a past spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson, and a popular professional speaker.

In 2000, she assembled her tips into a fact-filled, well-illustrated book, Smart Packing for Today’s Traveler. A revised and expanded edition was released in early 2004, and the newly updated Third Edition was released in April 2008. For the past few years, her website, www.smartpacking.com, has offered additional aid to travelers and media researchers with information about the travel industry’s latest rules and policy changes.