Thirty years ago that image may have fit, according to Travel Executive John Kloster. Kloster should know. He started his travel career in 1973 as a group travel director. Today, he is Editor in Chief of Premier Tourism Marketing Publications, a group publishing four travel trade magazines for the group market. The majority of readers of PTM (premiertourismmarketing.com) publications are group leaders. Kloster says these leaders and their groups look much different than the ones he knew more than three decades ago.

Instead, he says, they look more like Anne Miranda, a reader of Leisure Group Travel, one of four group travel trade magazines produced by PTM. Miranda and her husband retired nine years ago to The Forest Springs Senior Mobile Home Park in the foothills of Northern California. Retired Government employees, neither had traveled as members of a group tour before. Yet, when the leader of the travel club of their new community resigned, the Mirandas were asked by several friends and neighbors to take over. Anne Miranda jumped right in, discovering organizational and planning skills she developed over a lifetime were enough preparation for the role.

Today she can boast a decade of experience in leading The Forest Springs Travel Club on 8-10 day trips a year as well as less frequent and more extended treks to places like Mexico�s Copper Canyon and the exotic Hong Kong. Frequently, relatives and friends of club members join the adventure. She�s directed travelers as old as 92 and as young as 8. Anne travels for free, a perk available from most travel suppliers to those who plan and book travel for 10 or more people. In addition, she says, �We�re having the time of our lives!�

Compare that profile to the groups Kloster escorted back in the seventies. They were mostly his grandparent�s age and unsophisticated travelers. Many of them had never left the country. Most were traveling by airplane for the first time. They wanted a group leader to offer advice on everything from how much to tip the bellman to what to wear to dinner on a cruise. Kloster says the group traveler of 2005 is much savvier. They hardly need lessons in travel protocol. Instead, they join a group tour because they like the �camaraderie of groups,� and especially like to travel with others that have the same hobbies or interests. They enjoy traveling with people like Anne Miranda, without any formal training in the travel business or experience in group travel. Miranda simply has decades of �life skills,� along with an outgoing personality people are drawn too. �Today�s good group travel leaders are usually personable. They�re people that other people want to be around. They�re natural leaders with a sense of adventure and young spirit,� says Kloster. �They�re people that have discovered the joys and rewards of group travel, leading groups of all ages on all sorts of itineraries across the globe.�
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Premier Tourism Marketing is offering free trial subscriptions for a limited time to individuals who want to learn more about group travel and the advantages of being a group leader. To find out more, log on to leisuregrouptravel.com/subscribe_lgt.php.
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About Premier Tourism Marketing
Premier Tourism Marketing is a leading publisher of trade journals, web sites and e-newsletters for the group travel industry, with a total circulation of 53,000 group travel organizers. Readership includes travel planners representing religious groups, banks and credit unions, retirement clubs, special interest and alumni groups, plus tour operators, bus companies and travel agents that serve the market. The firm is a four-time winner of the Mature Media Awards for journalism excellence in travel trade magazines. For more information about the company, visit premiertourismmarketing.com.
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Contact: Jeff Gayduk
jeffg@premiertourismmarketing.com
630-964-1431