This year was one of the best in recent memory for travel, and
having just returned from the USTOA annual conference, I can tell
you the outlook for 2007 is even brighter. For our part, in the
past year we covered destinations from Antarctica to Africa; niche
travel like the medical tourism story featured in this issue and
more; industry topics, including the GDS battles and marketing
basics every agent should know; and profiles of industry players,
such as Tauck, CLIA, Ensemble and Ritz, to name a few. Perhaps our
biggest achievement this year, however, was the launch of our WAVE
Awards for suppliers, which will be expanded in 2007. In addition,
we will be bringing back a reader favorite next year the
Trendsetter Awards for agents so please keep an eye out for more
information on that in future issues. From the entire staff at
TravelAge West, we wish you a great holiday season, and many new
frontiers to explore in the year ahead. K
