Travel Alliance Partners, LLC, hosted its inaugural tourism networking event, TAP Dance 2006, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas. With a goal to redefine the way networking is done in the tourism industry, TAP Dance 2006 was designed to provide time to build relationships between operators and suppliers in an atmosphere of mutual respect with vision toward establishing lasting and profitable business associations. To this end, TAP Dance 2006 was a huge success.

The `all access` weekend conference began with opportunity for travel service providers to sit in on a Travel Alliance Partner’s meeting, and see how business is done from the tour operator’s side. Theresa Kyzer from Little Rock CVB comments, “I think TAP is onto something! The unique opportunity to see business done operator to operator provides insight and education for the travel services providers. The more “we” know about how [operators] do business, the better we can meet [their] needs.”

TAP is a partnership of 32 tour providers in the US and Canada, with destinations all over the world.Heading into their eighth year as a partnership, they realize firsthand the advantages of doing business with people they trust, and trusting business partners they have built personal relationships with. TAP Dance 2006 is the next step for them, endeavoring to build similar relationships with travel services providers from a shared platform of sound business. Invitations to TAP Dance are and will continue to be limited and by partner recommendation only.

Elizabeth MacDonald from Parks Canada explains, “I liked the invitation. It made me feel more personally selected to be there, and that [TAP] really wanted to hear from us and learn about us.”

The weekend was filled with standard tourism conference elements, but most with a twist. Appointments between partners and suppliers were held in hospitality suites and allotted twenty-five minutes each. Suppliers shared appointments, in small groups from similar destinations, affording relationships to be formed with other suppliers as well as partners.
Ron McConnell from Mobile CVB commented, “This state and regional concept could be very effective for future itinerary development.”

Striving to do business in an informal, educational, and distinctive environment, TAP members purposely shared dinner with suppliers they were “getting to know’. In the words of Joe Donnelly of Gaylord Hotels, “I can’t tell you how much the suppliers were “feeling the love” from the operators. It was great!”

Entertainment was provided in house, with two sketches by attending partners and suppliers together with an impromptu stand up comedy act by partner Bob Buesing, Principal of East coast Touring Co., who shared some industry specific humor that had everyone laughing (some at themselves). Scott Hartcorn of Shilo Management Corporation wrote, “This group is doing some wonderful things and taking a number of new approaches. For a first-time event it was a real winner!”

“It is few times in life that there are mutually beneficial situations, and this is one of the rare ones. I believe this organization will be setting new standards within our industry. The general feeling is that this was time and money well invested and a partnership experience with tour operators that most suppliers did not know is possible,” said Franci Edgerly of ITI Marketing, Inc.