Dear friends,
I am excited to announce that Travel Agent Magazine selected our HE Travel / Alyson Adventures Marketing Director Zachary Moses as one of 2012’s “30 Under 30” most accomplished travel professionals under the age of 30. He is featured in the current issue of the magazine: (link to his page).
Zach has been invited to the Young Leaders Conference of the Luxury Travel Exchange in Las Vegas later this month, and in January Zach and I will give a presentation about adventure travel at the National Tour Association’s Travel Exchange in Orlando.
Regular readers of our semi-monthly email newsletter, our blog, and our postcard calendars have seen Zach’s handiwork over the past two years, getting out the word about what makes our tours unique. And a few of you have seen Zach’s leadership on our tours, including the just-completed and very successful Israel Adventure Tour that he personally designed as our first designated “high-adrenaline tour”. Shortly you will see a fresh website as well, making it easier than ever to find information about our tours, and for the first time, offering the ability to reserve a trip online.
As noted by Travel Agent Magazine, Zach’s career in travel began with a happenstance meeting with me two years ago. (We live across the street from each other.) Before that, he toured the American West as a stand-up comedian, ran a boutique landscaping company in San Francisco with his brother, did carpentry in Salt Lake City, and taught beach sports to kids on a beach near Panama City, Florida until the BP oil spill chased all the kids away from his beach. (Thanks BP!)
As I look ahead to 2013 and beyond, I look forward to seeing what additional creative ideas Zach has to help us introduce our tours to younger travelers while maintaining the high quality of our tours for older travelers (or anyone who prefers not to rappel 300 feet into a salt cave in Mount Sodom by the Dead Sea!).
Our success grows from the individual efforts of a wonderful team who collectively have a couple of centuries of experience running tours. In our office, along with Zach we have Scott Fuhriman, our Client Relations Manager who brings 25 years in the hospitality industry (as well as a stint as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan) to his position, and Greg Tromba, who can find just the right flight while Travelocity and Ortibz are scratching their heads wondering how he did it. Greg is also the guy you never see who makes sure that our hotel, restaurant, activity and other reservations are in place to ensure a smooth trip. Our newest staff member is our European Specialist Biagio Tedesco, who is originally from Sicily, speaks 6 languages, and has developed tours all around Europe over the past decade. We also have more than a dozen professional tour directors who bring unique skills to our trips around the world.
Whether you’ve just returned from an adventure, haven’t toured with us for several years, or have never been on one of our tours, please take a look at our 40 or so tours planned for 2013. I hope you can join us!
Phil Sheldon, President, HE Travel / Alyson Adventures
