From May 20-22, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) hosted its annual Travel Advisor Conference, welcoming nearly 1,300 travel professionals to the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City in Utah.
Championing advisor education and supplier partnerships, the event featured a lineup of learning opportunities, its largest-ever tradeshow, an awards event and its annual Advocacy Dinner, among other highlights. ASTA also took the opportunity to introduce newly elected members of its Board of Directors, including its new chair, Lee Thomas of NousTravel, LLC, who takes the place of Jackie Friedman of Nexion Travel Group.
Advocacy in Action
One key theme at this year’s conference was the ongoing fight for greater advisor visibility — be it at the government level or among the general public.
ASTA continues to wage both of those battles on behalf of advisors. When it comes to legislative and regulatory matters, current priorities include fighting ticket refund obligations that can make agents responsible for issuing airfare refunds.
“We want to be out from under this onerous rule that advisors have to be the banks for airline refunds,” said Zane Kerby, president and CEO of ASTA. “We’re attacking that from several different angles.”
The organization is also trying to bulk up support for legislation that would make the Section 199A tax deduction (which allows businesses such as travel agencies to deduct a percentage of their qualified business income) permanent, and also to increase the deduction from 20% to 23%, which Kerby calls “a better tax break for our members.”
Jessica Klement, ASTA’s vice president of advocacy, spoke about the importance of members’ involvement with the organization’s efforts.
Credit: 2025 Jason Dixson PhotographyWhen it comes to raising consumer awareness of advisors, ASTA’s main plan of attack is its Verified Travel Advisor certification program and accompanying VeriVacation platform, which connects travelers to agents who have completed the certification process.
“We’re living in an attention economy,” Kerby said. “So, our big goal for the year is to get as much attention for Verified Travel Advisors as we possibly can with the resources available to us.”
Kerby notes that ASTA has approximately 1,000 advisors in the program now, with about 400 who are in some phase of completing their requirements. He says the goal is to have another 1,000 participants enrolled by year’s end. And, when it comes to promoting those advisors to the traveling public, Kerby says ASTA has seen some 150,000 consumer searches through VeriVacation in the last few months alone.
Our big goal for the year is to get as much attention for Verified Travel Advisors as we possibly can with the resources available to us.
“We launched [the platform] right around the Super Bowl and we put together a couple of professionally produced ads,” he said. “One of them has been watched more than a quarter of a million times. And I think a lot of those people have come to VeriVacation looking for a travel advisor.”
Business Updates
When asked how the current economic and political landscape is affecting members’ business, Kerby said the outlook is positive overall, despite the uncertainty of the times.
“We’re highly attuned to all the rhetoric coming out the current administration, but our members do a lot of domestic travel and outbound travel,” he said. “So, inbound travel into the United States [may be] suffering, but that’s not really their business. Their business is outbound and domestic, and that business is very good."
Kerby adds that ongoing economic instability may be affecting some members more than others “in a handful of places.” Still, the overall message is that “American travelers are really resilient” and, in general, their intention to travel has not taken a noticeable hit as of yet.
In terms of the main challenges advisors are facing right now, Kerby is less concerned over public policy than he is about AI. While he knows that, as a “system of algorithms,” AI is not a replacement for human experience nor expertise when it comes to trip planning, Kerby does worry about the backend that is funding those algorithms, and the potentially false narratives AI companies have the resources to create and promote about the technology’s abilities.
“The fact that these massive companies with limitless budgets can continue to put out the falsehood that AI is the only travel advice you’ll ever need, that’s of concern to me,” Kerby explained. “And I think there’s a role for Washington to regulate, or at least give us more insight into, how [AI programs] come to their conclusions and why they recommend what they recommend. They could be relying on Russian chatbots, they could be relying on who pays them the most. That should be transparently known to the consumer.”
The fact that these massive companies with limitless budgets can continue to put out the falsehood that AI is the only travel advice you’ll ever need, that’s of concern to me.
On the flip side, one area of opportunity that Kerby sees for advisors right now is catering to younger generations, who are increasingly turning to agents. While it might come as a surprise that more digitally savvy consumers are most likely to recognize the value of a travel planner, Kerby says these customers understand “that not everything that glitters online is gold.”
“Gen Xers are using travel advisors in huge numbers, and they are the largest age cohort in the United States,” Kerby said. “They’ve moved into middle management now, are making six figures and having families. And they take the most trips and they are the most loyal to travel advisors.”
Honoring Travel Professionals
During the conference, ASTA also announced the winner of its 2025 Travel Advisor of the Year Award, Asia Lantz of Travel With Asia. Other finalists included Heather D’Amico of D’Amico Travel and Diane Fish of Cruise Brothers.
Asia Lantz of Travel With Asia won the 2025 Travel Advisor of the Year Award.
Credit: 2025 Jason Dixson PhotographyWhile both advisors and suppliers were celebrated at an awards dinner during the Advisor Conference, next year, the organization will introduce a standalone awards event, called the ASTA Globes, to be held Jan. 22 in Chicago at the historic Palmer House, a Hilton Hotel.
“The interesting thing is that ASTA’s advocacy fund was really born at the Palmer House, with a gift from Richard Fain,” Kerby said. “From his own personal wealth, he gave ASTA $100,000 in 2021, and that was the beginning of the advocacy fund. So, we’re going to go back and celebrate that watershed moment for our company.”
Kerby adds that ASTA’s awards will also mostly be voted on by Verified Travel Advisors starting next year (instead of letting all members vote on all categories, as in the past).
2026 Travel Advisor Conference
ASTA announced during the event that next year’s Travel Advisor Conference will take place May 27-29 at the newly opened Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in San Diego, California.
Rachel Hollis — a New York Times bestselling author of self-help books, a motivational speaker and the host of The Rachel Hollis Podcast — will serve as keynote speaker, while educational content will be provided by the Dale Carnegie Institute.
Other confirmed speakers include Nadia Sparkle, travel advisor and founder of Travel With Sparkle; Denella Ri'chard, host of television show “Traveling With Denella Ri'chard”; Angela Hughes, CEO of Trips & Ships Luxury Travel and a travel and tourism professor at Brigham Young University; and Kha Ly, a travel industry marketing and technology expert.
Registration is currently open for next year’s event.
