Signature Travel Network held its 2025 Owners’ Meeting earlier this month at Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California, and the multi-day gathering brought together more than 500 agency owners and preferred partners.
Informative general sessions and panels, one-on-one appointments in the hotel’s historic Crown Room and buzzy dinners on the beach and beyond made it an affair that was both professionally fruitful and fun. The theme for the conference was “evolve,” and to that end, Signature leaders debuted new and enhanced tech tools to help its agencies sell more and with increased efficiency — a message that supplier partners in the audience were happy to hear.
It was also announced on the first morning of the conference that Karryn Christopher had been named president of the member-owned cooperative, effective immediately. Former president Alex Sharpe remains a vital part of the Signature team and retains his CEO title.
Karryn Christopher was named president of Signature Travel Network during this year’s Owner’s Meeting.
Credit: 2025 Chelsee Lowe“Our coworkers, members and partners adore and respect Karryn because she leads with both head and heart,” Sharpe said in a statement. “She has a rare ability to bring people together and turn ideas into impactful results. With Karryn stepping into this role, our leadership capacity and ability to serve our members is stronger than ever.”
Here’s what else we learned about Signature’s priorities while attending the conference.
1. Investing in Tech Remains a Priority
Karen Yeates, executive vice president of information technologies, brought attendees up to speed on the tech tools — and goals — the network is reaching toward, including building an “enterprise data architecture that is going to transform our fragmented data into a single source of truth.”
Yeates pointed out that Signature has 30 years’ worth of booking data, but that it’s been challenging to navigate and learn from, until now.
“We are embarking on an aggressive strategy to tie all of our siloed data together,” Yeates said. “In a cohesive framework, client behaviors, product information, marketing and sales information and partner data will be in one place. It will revolutionize how we do things. It will inform us based on real evidence, and trends, patterns and insights will emerge.”
People come to us for our tech. I don't want to just move along with incremental improvement over the next several years — we want quantum leaps.
Since the Owner’s Meeting last year, Yeates says that generative AI tools have been rolled out with gusto. These tools allow Signature agents to efficiently create and send product comparison emails for cruise, hotel and land bookings. In Signature’s e-marketing center, agents can generate email subject lines, email content boxes, test email campaigns and more. Agents can also use AI to recraft their online bios based on the products that they sell and the destinations they know. In the next 12 months, additional AI abilities will be rolled out, including a reporting component that will allow agents to examine key metrics such as open rates, flip throughs, bounces and more.
“People come to us for our tech,” Sharpe added. “I don't want to just move along with incremental improvement over the next several years — we want quantum leaps. We want to grow this gap between us and them. It is incredible when you can collect your data in an organized fashion then overlay AI. We get so many great returns from that.”
2. Signature Is Growing — Smartly
Sharpe confirmed that of the network’s 226 member agencies, 209 were represented at the Owner’s Meeting — a ratio that he says speaks volumes about the professional dedication of the network.
“We are small, but with a huge impact,” Sharpe told the crowd. “A ‘little member’ here is driving compelling revenue to a number of partners. It’s not about volume. We are wired on how you grow — every agency [that’s already here]. We can go add 100 agencies, and I can stand up here and say we’re up 50%, but what does that mean for you?"
Suppliers and travel advisors met face to face for appointments in Hotel del Coronado’s historic Crown Room.
Credit: 2025 Chelsee LoweThe network prioritizes individual advisor agency growth, not just the collective “getting bigger.” Signature wants to help its advisors become more effective, drive more leads and connect with preferred partners in improved ways.
One prong of that mission is supporting ASTA’s Verified Travel Advisor certification program, which provides specialized training and boosts the professionalism of the trade. Another goes back to tech, because outfitting Signature agencies with the best tech in the travel industry helps the organization recruit excellent new advisors to the field — and that’s a strategic way to grow Signature, too.
3. Signature Continues to Encourage Agents to Sell Under-the-Radar Destinations
For a full decade, Ignacio Maza, now executive vice president of Signature Travel Network, has stood on stage at the Owner’s Meeting to suggest under-the-radar destinations agencies might promote to their clients the following year. His intention is simple: to use his platform and influence to bring tourism away from inundated hot spots and toward incredible hidden gems just as worthy of a visit.
“I created this as a lark 10 years ago,” Maza said of the list. “I thought, ‘Lonely Planet has one, The New York Times has one. Why not us? The business of overtourism is enormous. It’s a huge challenge, and it creates problems in the destination. We have to get our arms around this, and do it in a way that is constructive, that is positive, that is forward-thinking and that is conscientious."
The business of overtourism is enormous. It’s a huge challenge, and it creates problems in the destination. We have to get our arms around this, and do it in a way that is constructive.
Maza pointed to Italy as an example. According to his research, 70% of travelers to Italy go to just three or four places — Rome, Venice and Florence included. It’s unsustainable for the destination, Maza says, and the crowds mean it’s likely not a good experience for clients, either. The solution? Be a knowledgeable advisor who can turn people on to alternatives.
In Ignacio Maza’s conference presentation, Kyushu, Japan, was a recommended under-the-radar destination.
Credit: 2025 Roparat/stock.adobe.com
This year, Maza used his stage time to plug destinations he described as “interesting and genuine.” First on the list was Canada, where he suggested spots such as Waterton Lakes National Park (home to incredible spring wildflowers and mountain landscapes, as well as a huge concentration of preserved fossils) and Metis Crossing, an Indigenous cultural hub in Alberta. Next was the interior of Mexico, including colonial towns, the beautiful Lake Bacalar (also known as the Lagoon of Seven Colors) and the Maya site of Coba. In Chile, Maza pointed out the beauty of the Atacama Desert, the lake district and Easter Island, which is a Chilean territory. In Sweden, Lapland’s wide-open spaces, minimal number of tourists and Saami people (the only Indigenous group in Europe) are part of the draw, as are tree hotels with incredible forest and sky views.
Other destinations shouted out included the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, the fortresses and markets of Uzbekistan, the eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka, the Japanese island of Kyushu, the island of Tasmania, the North Island of New Zealand and Anchorage, Alaska.
“I want you to think up and out,” Maza told attendees. “If you walk out of here with one idea, I'm happy.”
4. Signature Is Leaning into Storytelling — With Some Help From Tech
Signature Storybook, a new digital platform soon to be available for agencies in the network, effectively merges technology and storytelling, according to Yeates. Visually rich (think: 360-degree tours, extensive photo galleries and more) and loaded with preferred Signature suppliers, Storybook will allow advisors to create customized online comparisons and proposals for clients at incredible speeds.
“The goal is to help you tell the story with multimedia [assets], connective data and rich analytics,” Yeates said on stage. “It's not just showing your clients a picture, it's not just sending them a link to a webpage they can look at. It’s relatable. It creates emotional connections, builds trust and fosters loyalty. This will allow you to connect with your clients on a deeper human level. It will make your engagement more memorable, and that's why your clients will keep coming back to you."
The platform highlights lead pricing, Signature promotions and Signature exclusives. It will allow for “granular filtering,” so agents can sift through products and curate options based on client needs, and it will have sharing links, analytics and AI comparisons and rankings. The platform can even scour the web for related customer feedback.
Yeates expects to soft launch Storybook in Q1 next year.
5. A Critical Part of Luxury Travel Is Personalization — and a Growing Hotel Marketplace Helps Advisors Meet That Need
One component of conference content was a panel with luxury hotel brand representatives, who discussed growing property portfolios, how these hotel products are designed to serve discerning luxury travelers and overall trends in the market. The three panelists on stage for the conversation were Sam McDiarmid, senior director of global sales for Auberge Resorts Collection; Ollie Palmer, senior director of global sales, lifestyle, for Hyatt; and Alex Pellegrino, director of luxury global sales, programs and partnerships for IHG Hotels and Resorts.
Pellegrino pointed to IHG’s growth in Saudi Arabia, where the brand has three hotels currently, and reminded Signature agencies to keep their eye on the luxurious Six Senses brand, which has locations from Bhutan to the Maldives. Palmer, of Hyatt, noted that the brand has been in "acquisition mode,” which has allowed it to diversify and maximize its potential to serve different clients. Categories under Hyatt, he says, include luxury, lifestyle, all-inclusive, classics and essentials. Hyatt acquired The Standard Hotels recently, for example, as a means of holding more space in the design-forward, locally driven lifestyle category.
Auberge’s strategy, meanwhile, has been slow, steady and strategic growth — since 2012, the brand’s portfolio has grown from three to 30 properties.
“What makes us special is our complete dedication to [being] one-of-a-kind,” McDiarmid said. “While we’ve grown, it’s been very thoughtful. Every time we go into a market, we want to have the best location in that market, with the best building, with the right owner. We lead with that.”
According to McDiarmid, each Auberge property is treated as its own brand, and being “one of one” is what drives travelers to its properties. The most recent Auberge openings include The Dulin in South Carolina and Collegio Alla Querce in Florence, Italy. Every Auberge hotel has "experience curators,” too — experts in the region who can tailor stays to client preferences.
“People want special access that nobody else can get, not just some standard off-the-shelf option,” McDiarmid said.
