Celebrating 50 Years of Partnership at TravelAge West

When the world’s great cathedrals were built by hand, it often took 100 years or more to complete a structure. This meant that several generations of laborers spent year after year slowly adding to the project, knowing they would never see the final result. Their main goal was to continue the good work done by their predecessors, and hand off a better building to the workers who would follow them.

I can’t help feeling a kinship with these craftspeople as we celebrate TravelAge West’s 50th anniversary with this issue.

A key to the success of the publication has always been an innovative approach. Not only did TravelAge West break new ground by reaching across the frontier “out West,” but it was also written for the army of frontline travel agents, who, as it turned out, had a lot more influence over travel decisions than any previous publisher thought. This new demographic — the Western travel advisor — took clients beyond the same old resorts to promote travel to cities deep in Asia, tropical islands in the Pacific, quaint seaside towns south of the border and anywhere else on the planet that the adventurous travelers of the West were clamoring to go.

TravelAge West humbly provided these groundbreaking advisors with their own community newspaper, and together, we changed the industry.

There’s little doubt that, as the current Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, I am in the fortunate position of standing on the shoulders of giants. Many of those giants worked at TravelAge West in the past, but several also work at the publication today. On this page, you can check out a photo of the team that I’m so proud to work with, but in particular, I would like to highlight Creative Director Deborah Dimond, for bringing back the retro look of the brand’s early days throughout this issue, and Associate Editor Emma Weissmann, who pored through back issues of the publication and spearheaded this special content.

As you’ll see in this issue, we’ve also included content provided by some of our longtime partners. We’re well aware that we would never have made it to 50 without the support of suppliers who are committed to helping travel advisors succeed.

Most of all, I want to thank you, the advisors, for your readership over the past half-century. Even as we reach this milestone, we know that the cathedral is not finished, and there’s plenty more work to be done. Rest assured, we’ll continue to do our part to fulfill the mission we set out on together in 1969.