Slideshow: MAST Rolls Out New Programs at Conference, Owners Summit

MAST Travel Network introduced new programs at the organization’s Annual MAST Conference, held in early May in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Owners Summit, a one-day conference for agency owners only, held June 6.

The conference included The Travel Technology Marketplace, a tabletop exhibition showcasing apps, wearable technology, and virtual reality. Also at the conference, MAST members were introduced to ClientFirst, a white-label version of Touch Base, a ClientBase Marketing Services product. The ClientFirst client relationship tool will help agencies stay top-of-mind with their clients by sending automatic greetings and reminders customized with each agency's contact information, MAST said.

At the Owners Summit, several other new programs were launched, including MAST Groups. This program will offer tour and cruise experiences with MAST exclusives and "not-your-ordinary” itineraries often built around special events, popular activities, and highly desired destinations, such as the Edinburgh Military Tattoo Festival and St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, MAST said.

Also announced was MAST’s 360 Travel Blog, which will provide travelers with travel news and tips. Members now have access to an electronic document-signing platform where their customer liability waivers and other customer documents for signature can be housed, emailed and signed online.

A new video library is also available for member use to link to from agency websites and social media platforms.

Coming later this summer will be MAST’s Certified Expert Program. This program will be integrated with the Agency Profiler System on MAST’s website. The agency profiler has an agency locator for customers to search for the MAST expert closest to their home or workplace. Travefy’s itinerary app, which MAST started offering members late last summer, was also featured at the two conferences.

John Werner, president and COO, also discussed MAST’s five-year strategic plan during the Town Hall meeting at the Owners Summit. The plan includes seven areas of concentration, including consumer trends, supplier relations, safety and security, marketing, technology and network participation. MAST members are most anxious to address the future of travel professionals entering the industry and what can be done to attract people to the agency side of the business, the organization said.

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