Remember the old days? Get to the Sunquest launch before all the roast beef sandwiches (or Jamaican patties) are gone was the common refrain. How things have changed.

Travel advisors (they were indisputably travel “agents” back then) will have no fears of going hungry at next week’s TravelBrands Agent Appreciation Events (Sunquest is now part of a Japanese-owned multi-brand travel conglomerate) in Toronto and Montreal as extensive buffets at multiple food stations will keep tummies filled.

In Toronto, the gala has migrated north over the years from airport-area hotels to Woodbridge and is taking place in the Spring instead of the Fall (or late summer). After all, traffic is hell in the city nowadays, and product is dynamic, not constrained by seasonal brochures. Of course, TravelBrands also now has another mega-event on its calendar in the Fall – for the past eight years, its annual charity golf classic.

Many of the attendees (over a thousand are expected across both cities) will be coming to the Appreciation events from home, not the office – another difference.

But despite all the changes and evolution into a new world of travel in the 2000s, one thing that is still same is the company’s devotion to travel agent/advisors, says HIS-Red Label Vacations-TravelBrands CEO Nathalie Tanious (notably the first female chief executive in the legacy company’s long history), who says that partnership is critical in helping not only sell product but in offering customer service to mutual clients as well.

“The customer service aspect is the key to our growth,” she told Travel Industry Today.

Next week’s events (Tuesday in Toronto, Wednesday in Montreal) will naturally have a trade show, featuring a who’s who of (91) suppliers to the Canadian market, but also education, networking, and a presentation offering an insider’s glimpse beyond current product lines and campaigns into the company’s future plans in the industry as well.

Tanious notes that in today’s travel environment “the focus is about technology,” adding, “the days are gone when you’re going to go through every one of your hotels (at a product launch).”

Pointing out that TravelBrands has 1.8 million hotels in its system, she laughs, “How are you going to go through every one of them?”

Instead, the goal is to make sure that travel advisors have the tools and the knowledge on how to find, sell, and book those hotels (and other product).

And with so much inventory, she adds, “We can have every program in the world, but if we can’t get that help, it’s of no use.”

To that end, Tanious says TravelBrands continues to focus on its own customer service to travel agents through year-round education – at trade events, virtually, and in-person at agencies.

“Every time we introduce something new, we have training,” she adds.

Further, next week, the tour company will introduce ‘24/7’ service for travel agents and their clients, enabling callers to reach TravelBrands with a problem any time of day or night.

Besides the always-evolving technology, Tanious notes that product training is still vitally important, particularly when it comes to expanding programs like Exotics, which cater to a new breed of traveller as likely to go to Japan as Jamaica.

Tanious says she’s amazed at how much travel ­– and the industry – has changed over the years and is eager to see it continue to evolve.

Maybe, she muses, “in 30 years we’ll be able to simply beam people to Barcelona – like Star Trek.”

If so, expect TravelBrands to have training for that.