The National Tour Association’s (NTA) tour operator event, Contact, will head to San Diego, Calif., in 2012. The three-day conference, scheduled for Aug. 16–18, 2012, will bring travel professionals together in one of California’s most inviting and scenic settings.
“Contact is a tour operator education conference, where [travel professionals] can gain timely information and explore new business opportunities,” said Lisa Simon, NTA president. “We’ll see a tremendous exchange of ideas and business cards, but there are also fam trips, sightseeing tours and social events at local landmarks. San Diego is the perfect host city to follow our success in Rhode Island.”
The inaugural Contact, held this past August in Newport, R.I., allowed tour operators to conduct business appointments and join one of three professional development tracks: CEO/owner, sales/marketing or operations/product development. And when attendees took a look at Rhode Island’s tour product, the experience became a windfall for the state’s tourism department.
Benjamin Eastman, travel trade development manager of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that Rhode Island set the bar high for host cities, but San Diego is up for the challenge in 2012.
“Attendees will be able to enjoy the perfect blend of business meetings, networking and fun while in San Diego,” Eastman said. www.ntaonline.com
