This week: Amex GBT powers eco-conscious choices; Ensemble powers Rwandan woman; ACTA posts key 2025 event dates for; incentives from Sunwing/Blue Diamond, Encore Cruises, G Adventures, and Africa Travel; and a Bob Marley-based trip contest by the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Amex GBT

American Express Global Business Travel is launching an innovative emissions-based carbon pricing platform to help companies reduce their business travel’s environmental footprint, offering a new way to incentivize sustainable travel choices. This solution allows businesses to select a carbon calculation methodology and apply a flat or dynamic carbon fee to employees’ air travel.

The platform makes these fees visible during the booking process and on invoices, helping organizations inform staff about their carbon impact and sustainability initiatives, while encouraging more eco-conscious travel decisions.

The revenue generated from these carbon fees can be used to build a self-sustaining fund for sustainability initiatives such as the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), research and development (R&D), and more.

Nora Lovell Marchant, VP of Global Sustainability at Amex GBT, said that the carbon pricing of business travel could help shift companies toward “a more sustainable future.”

Escapes.ca

In February, Escapes.ca is running a fundraiser inspired by Ensemble’s Land for Women campaign, which supports the groundbreaking project by Legacy of War Foundation (LoWF) promoting the economic empowerment of Rwandan women through land ownership and sustainable cooperative farming. Throughout the month of February, Escapes.ca will donate $3 from every online booking to the Land for Women campaign.

In addition, Escapes.ca will match all donations generated through bookings during the month, up to a maximum of $5,000 CAD. Amplifying the impact of this campaign, Navigatr Group, parent company of Ensemble, will also match all donations collected by Escapes.ca. The campaign will be featured across several social media networks, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, to raise awareness and encourage participation.

The campaign is part of Ensemble’s ongoing fundraiser for LoWF to support Land for Women, a project helping women to empower themselves and gain financial independence.

ACTA

ACTA is planning a number of events for 2025 and is issuing dates and locations at this time, with more detail to follow closer to the event. (An announcement will be made soon about ACTA’s international Summit and conference.)

Au Tour du Monde « Viva » ACTA Québec 2025
March 5 – Time:  5:30 pm-8:30 pm
Hyatt Centric Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
Quebec registration is open; sign up here:
ACTA Manitoba Travel Advisor Appreciation Event
March 24 – Time: 5:30 pm-8:30 pm
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg.
ACTA Edmonton Travel Advisor Appreciation Event
March 25 – Time: 5:30 pm-8:30 pm
MKT Food Market, Edmonton.
ACTA Education Roundtable Calgary
March 27 – Time: 8:30 am-2:30 pm
DoubleTree by Hilton Calgary North, Calgary.
ACTA Travel Industry Golf Event, Advocacy Fund Raiser
July 10, 2025
Royal Ontario Golf Club, Milton, Ont.
Eastern Canada Travel Industry Summit
Sept. 11 – Time: 9 am-6 pm
Toronto Congress Centre
Western Canada Travel Industry Summit
Sept. 18 – Time: 9 am-6 pm
River Rock Casino Resort, Richmond, BC
Quebec Travel Industry Summit
Sept. 30 – Time: 9 am-6 pm
Montreal Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel

These events are complimentary to ACTA Members, Non-ACTA Members are asked to provide a donation to ACTA’s advocacy fund. Registration for our West events will open soon! Visit actaevents.ca for more details.

AGENT RESOURCES

Sandals Elite Advisor Program

Sandals Resorts’ and Beaches Resorts’ has introduced a refreshed Sandals Elite Advisor (S.E.A.) Program with new tools, support systems and opportunities for advancement. The program allows travel advisors to ascend through different status levels, offering exclusive perks for registering commissionable travel bookings of three nights or more.

S.E.A. can be accessed in Sandals’ and Beaches’ Travel Advisor Portal, where advisors will find a refreshed Advisor’s Benefits page with new status tiers. An updated Travel Advisor Dashboard will appear in the ‘My Bookings’ section of the advisor’s account, with all new dials and bars showing total lifetime, travelled and future bookings – along with a new dial to track revenue for current year and tracking towards potential Chairman’s Royal Club (CRC) membership.

An all-new TA Portal is scheduled to launch in June 2025.

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises 

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises is introducing additional resources for travel advisors, including complimentary access to the social media marketing tool Rallio and comprehensive advisor toolkits.

Rallio, a social media management platform, is designed to help travel advisors streamline their marketing efforts, providing a range of Uniworld social media content that can be customized, scheduled and tracked using intuitive analytics. Travel advisors can connect their social media accounts and publish posts featuring Uniworld products, updates and brand highlights generated by Uniworld’s internal marketing team. Visit uniworld.rallio.com.

Meanwhile, the travel advisor toolkits are convenient, one-stop-shop resources designed to provide marketing materials, assets and sales strategies to support key Uniworld campaigns and offers. Each Toolkit includes campaign or offer details, social media resources, direct mail pieces, flyers, PowerPoint slides and more. They also feature a new Selling Points PDF to help travel advisors identify the ideal clients for specific campaigns and include key talking points for presenting offers. The first toolkit was officially launched for Uniworld’s ‘12 Days of Christmas’ event in December 2024 and the toolkit for Uniworld’s current ‘Sail into Savings’ event is now live.

FAMS & INCENTIVES

• Travel advisors who secure their clients a Blue Diamond Resorts vacation package in Cuba with Sunwing by Feb. 28, for travel by Oct. 31, will earn up to 3X STAR Points on every eligible booking, and get an automatic entry for their chance to win one of five stays to Starfish Cayo Largo, Starfish Guardalavaca, Starfish Cayo Guillermo, Resonance Musique Santa Maria or Resonance Musique Varadero. As well, advisors who secure group bookings during this period for travel between May 1 and Oct, 31, 2025 will earn 4X STAR Points.
• Through Feb. 17, travel agents can earn 2,500 Loyalty Rewards points on any six-night or longer Europe sailing in 2025 booked with TravelBrands Encore Cruises. Plus, the ‘Europe Extravaganza!’ offer enables travellers to sail away with an exclusive air discount of p.p. (max. $200 per stateroom) when booking an inside or oceanview stateroom; or a $200 p.p. air discount (max. $400 per stateroom) when booking a balcony or above.
• Agents are invited to enter the Jamaica Tourist Board’s ‘One Love’ contest celebrating Bob Marley’s 80th birthday. By correct identifying the lyrics to 10 iconic Bob Marley songs and you will be entered into a draw to win the grand prize of a three-night trip to Kingston, Jamaica, including a air with Flair. There are also 80 consolation prizes. To enter, go to visitjamaica.com/canada/contest. Deadline is Feb. 28.
• To celebrate a record-breaking sales period, surpassing its January targets, G Adventures is offering advisors an extra-special ‘G Normous’ incentive where agents can earn up to 3% additional commission during February. The offer comes on top of the ongoing G Normous promotion, which continues until the end of April.
• For every booking made by April 30, advisors will earn a chance to win an Africa Travel Inc. US$30,000 11-night luxury safari to Kenya and Tanzania for themselves and a guest. More bookings mean a greater their chances of winning a spot in the ‘World’s Greatest Show & Safari’ departure, which includes exploring renowned wildlife reserves, stays at stylish Elewana camps, all meals, and round-trip international airfare from JFK airport to Nairobi. As another incentive, ATI is offering, a $300 digital gift card incentive for every couple booked on their brand-new Concierge Safaris before March 31. More details HERE.

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