Episode 20: April Chan, Travel Advisor at Celebrated Travel

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Journeys Profile. Today, we're joined by April Chan of Celebrated Travel. April, welcome. Thank you for having me, Ewan. Great to have you here, April. Well, look, could you start off, please, April, with giving us an overview of you. How did you get into the industry? How did you get to Celebrated Travel? So I came to the travel industry in a bit of a roundabout way. In the years immediately prior to the pandemic, I was, oddly enough, a food writer and a food historian. I,

[00:00:30] I freelanced for my local newspaper. I worked as a culinary historian for cookbooks. And once the pandemic hit, all those gigs dried up in the before, before times I used to work in tech. And so this desire to, you know, do something that was very research-based and, you know, utilized my detail-orientedness, it never died down. So once the world sort

[00:00:56] of opened up a little bit, I decided I'm due for a vacation. And off I went with my best friends to the south of France. And who but a travel advisor came to save us from all the cognitive labor of planning this momentous trip for, you know, us five, six gals. And I was just fascinated with this woman. I never knew that being a travel advisor was a thing. I always thought, Oh, well you just kind of, you know, use the internet and bootstrap your

[00:01:23] way and wing it once you get in destination. But no, there is such a thing as a travel advisor. And this woman completely impressed me so much so that I reached out to her and asked if I could work for her. And today she is now my boss and the owner of the brand Celebrated Travel. So... And so you hired Celebrated Travel then, right? So you worked with them as a customer to begin with.

[00:01:49] Yes. I was a client. My now boss is a friend, excuse me, a cousin of my best friend. And throughout the whole planning process, I was just gobsmacked. I was just completely enamored with her and I never knew that such a lane existed. And so that was an eyeopening experience. And I, you know, months later after the trip, I just made the plunge. I cold called her and I said, Hey, I'd like to come work with you.

[00:02:14] Wow. Okay. Then, then can you, so great story, April. That's an awesome background. Is it fair to say you've always, have you always been into travel as a consumer before turning pro as the phrase goes? Certainly. I would say most, I chart most of my major life memories through food, certainly, and travel. So in, in years past, I would just sort of fly myself into a main hub and then

[00:02:40] sort of wing it as I go. And to know that there, you know, is, is this whole industry of subject matter experts in travel who are taking all this cognitive labor off the poor traveler. It just blew my mind. Tell us about celebrated travel then. Give us an overview of the organization. We are a small but mighty team of six. We've got a fair amount of us in San Antonio, Texas. I'm all

[00:03:05] by my lonesome out here in the San Francisco Bay area. We've also got another gal in Chicago. So a small but mighty team. We are an affiliate of coastline travel group, which is a host agency based in Southern California. And I cannot say enough good things about my host, the owner and president of the host, Jay Johnson, you might be familiar with him. He is such an upstanding fellow. There is an

[00:03:30] award called the Ruby of Siam that Virtuoso gives out every year at Virtuoso Travel Week. And Jay Johnson won this, I believe two years ago. And what's unique about this award is that, you know, it is an award that an agency owner wins by virtue of his peers, his or her peers. So the fact that he was singled out to be, you know, recognized as an upstanding member of the community, I think that speaks volumes

[00:03:57] about coastline travel group. And they are so incredibly collegial and convivial and generous with their brain trust, go coastline. Speaking of travel and customers or clients, can you give us an example profile? You know, who do you tend to be working with, say, April? These travelers tend to be well-educated, highly tech savvy, and pressed for time. Often they will come to me with ideas or an

[00:04:25] itinerary that's, you know, they've clotted it out. It's all AI optimized to their interest, but yet ultimately they still believe in the value of service, in the value of expertise, and they come to us wanting to verify their findings. I have found this to be most true of the millennials, less so the Gen Xers, but you know, the millennials, they definitely have a fully baked idea in mind, and then

[00:04:55] they come to us to help, you know, put things into action and execute. April, did you say clotted? They've clotted. They've clotted. I haven't come across that specific phrase before. Clod, clod, chat, sheped, I'm just, you know, making a verb out of it. Really interesting, because that must have been something that I presume when you started with celebrated, you know, that word that they chat, sheped, or they clotted it, but that won't have

[00:05:21] been in the lexicon at that point. That must be something, is that something really new you're seeing? It's, it's, I'm just using a, this is my own vernacular to describe a phenomenon that I've, I'm personally seeing in my book of business, but ultimately, you know, this is a client base that knows what they want. They know how to use all the tools available to them to fine tune and hone their

[00:05:44] ideas, but ultimately they still want that personal touch. They want a subject matter expert. They want to verify what AI has told them, whether or not it is, is true or not. And usually we're often very, we're oftentimes very open to working with them in that, in that way. I myself deeply understand the thrill of research. So I'm, I'm exceptionally open-minded to a client who perhaps wants a smidge

[00:06:11] of structure by way of me, the travel advisor, but still hoof it on their own and sort of wing it with their own research. Gotcha. Can we ask you about your memorable trips that you've booked for clients recently? Just some, some examples just to give a flavor of some of the things you've been, you've been doing. Sure thing. So what thrills and gratifies me is not so much the destination or the luxury aspect of, of the booking. It's really when there is, you know, personal significance to the

[00:06:41] booking. I can give you an example that happened over the summer. Actually, there was a father who came to me with an idea to visit the South of France. Specifically, they wanted to travel down the Rhone river because he had always wanted to see the Pont du Gard. Apparently he did a massive project, an art project when he was a high schooler. And this was a far off place near Avignon that,

[00:07:05] you know, he, he had only read about in books and now, you know, well into his fifties, he said to himself, you know, I've always wanted to see the real thing and I'd like to take my family with me. So I booked him on a talk river cruise in June and he told me he had the time of his life. It really brought full circle, um, a childhood memory of his. I had another family on a multi-generational trip

[00:07:32] on princess this summer to celebrate granny who was turning 80. So husband and grandma and grandpa, all their children, their nieces, their cousins. It was, you know, a good group of about 20 and to all come 80 is, is just a milestone celebration, I think in any culture and for them to be able to make it happen in spite of all the, you know, snarls with weather and travel and, you know, the wildfires in

[00:08:01] Europe that, that they made it happen means so much to me because the most precious thing that anyone has is time and their families. So less about the destination, more about the personal significance to the client. Would you give us a view on demand and are some of those examples you've given us, are they illustrative of demand that you're seeing from clients? So for my Americans, I would say the demand for Europe will never subside. We are infatuated

[00:08:29] with Europe. So it will always, Europe demand will always be high. Asia is very hot. Japan was all the rage. I think the last two years, now we're seeing a lot of interest for South Korea and Taiwan because of proximity. And also, you know, they're so well organized and so receptive to tourism. And, uh, it's, it's sort of like a natural second wave post Japan apart from destination specific demand. I would

[00:08:55] say I'm noticing a trend where travelers are booking with shorter and shorter runways. So we are, we travel advisors have been tap dancing for our lives because we're getting requests for big trips with a departure date of, you know, a month or two. And if you, yeah, I actually got a request just last week for Patagonia and Christmas, which is kind of, you know, a tough, a tough itinerary to

[00:09:21] book on short notice. But this is the way of the world now, you know, given the global turmoil and uncertainty travelers are holding off into the last minute. I think certainly, you know, the airfare, the hikes in, in fuel surcharges and therefore airfare plays a role. But I tell you, once they decide to go, they're going. And another trend is that luxury travel has simply not abated. It is,

[00:09:48] it is just going full steam ahead. And I think one of the trade pubs, Skiff Magazine, I believe it was, recently said, you know, we used to talk about luxury travel in a K-shaped economy, and now it's more like a load bearing wall in the house of travel. So good news for certainly good news for travel advisors, but it means we've got to work harder, faster, leaner, meaner. Can I ask you, April, for your predictions on how you might see that change? Do you have a view on how that's going to change in the next year or so?

[00:10:18] I'm quite bullish on luxury travel. I don't think it will change. I'm also seeing a lot of interesting airlift, particularly out of major hubs in the US. So United, American, I mean, they're neck to neck announcing brand new routes for summer 2027. And that's always exciting news. I think with the demise of Spirit, you know, all the other, all their other peers are sort of

[00:10:43] jostling and jockeying for position for domestic routes. So I myself am quite bullish that this trend will continue, but let's hope and pray that we'll have less global chaos and travelers will feel extraordinarily confident in booking travel. Can I have a supplemental for you, April? I'm just wondering what you're seeing in terms of

[00:11:08] push versus pull. Do some of your clients, do they really want a push from you as in, have you thought of, have you tried or are they, as you were saying with a clotted reference, are they arriving almost fully formed? You know, I'm wondering how you're seeing that change. Are you advising, you know, you might want to think of, or are they coming to you with the, the, the rough request?

[00:11:33] Well, thankfully I am so well supported by my host agency, by my consortia, Virtuoso, and all the luxury suppliers that we work with. They have given us so much content to flow down to our clients that I am getting a steady, steady intake of, of new requests. I think cruisers in particular are very

[00:11:56] loyal to that mode of travel. And that is a segment of travel that perhaps needs less push. And one of the things that fascinates me the most about that particular segment is the influx of luxury hoteliers who are launching these yacht experiences and trying to sell this concept of, you know, being the best

[00:12:19] hotel, uh, not being on land. Perhaps one of Explora journeys, their taglines is perhaps the best hotel is not a hotel after all. And it, I find this segment extremely fast and they are making a major play into pushing an already very loyal client base to a new product. Speaking of suppliers then, what, and we have quite a few listening, April, what's your message to them hoping to attract your

[00:12:47] attention and the business of your clients? In a nutshell, I would say, simplify your touch points for travel advisors. If you, if working with you or booking you takes far too much effort, or it's a suboptimal experience, we're just going to move on to the next, or we're going to stick to our tried and true shortlist. I think, you know, now that as I explained previously, we are given

[00:13:11] a shorter and shorter runway to make magic happen. You really need to be frictionless and easy to work with. Otherwise it's just going to add more lag time because we're, we're being asked to turn around things, you know, quick, very quickly. Another thing I would suggest is that, you know, suppliers ought to

[00:13:32] think about how they can offer ways to give the travel advisor experience a leg up over OTAs, online travel agencies like booking and Expedia or any of their usual direct to consumer channels. That would be a huge plus. It would help us show value. It would certainly help you gain retention, gain client retention to your, your brand, your property, your experiences, what have you. And, you know, anything

[00:14:00] to sort of endear a relationship with travel advisors is, will grab my attention, hands down. And I think it might be quite useful if you don't mind it, but would you mind spelling out a little bit? You know, like what, what do you mean by, you know, a leg up, a differentiation, a slightly different welcome experience, perhaps, you know, more exclusivity. What are you thinking?

[00:14:23] Well, for starters, I think having amenity rich rates through travel advisors, that, that would be a huge boost. Information is so readily available to the average consumer now that you can be sure, you know, they're doing some level of real-time comparison, but certainly, you know, having an enhanced welcome experience, you know, being extra bespoke or offering ways that,

[00:14:50] that the travel advisor can show that, you know, hospitality is ultimately a human to human experience. And there's no, no, there's no AI agent out there who can follow through on the execution of that experience. So anything that suppliers can do to help underscore that through travel advisors in the face of consumers, I think would be extremely helpful. What's the best way for suppliers to engage with you, April?

[00:15:18] I'm actually an oddball and in the sense that I, I absolutely love my inbox. There are never, it's, it's, it never looks overwhelming to me. So I am an email junkie and I will read all of your newsletters. So please do overly spam me. I guess the other obvious answer would be come to a journeys global event. That is the answer. Yes. Break down the doors and email Michaela. You got to get

[00:15:43] in on these journeys, global events, uh, worldwide. And let's see what else. I mean, on that note, I, you know, again, hospitality is very much a human experience to the extent that you can, I mean, go on as many road shows as possible, like figure out who your client base is and just hit up those, those states, those cities. It really makes a difference for a travel advisor to engage face to face with a supplier.

[00:16:12] There are no amount of webinars or phone calls or what have you training will take the place of a human face to face experience. So get yourselves in front of us as, as much as you can. Very helpful. April, we're at that point in our, our profile of you where we like to get a little bit personal and it's a very, very popular segment. I'm going to give you some notice of the questions

[00:16:38] though, right? So we're not surprising you. So this is all about you and your travel preferences. Now we'd like to know what your undiscovered gem is. Now that could be a hotel, a destination, an experience or something like that. Okay. We'd like to ask for your favorite hotel or hotels. We'd like to ask your favorite city. And, and then the last question, what's your favorite vacation? Uh, so if I can, I'll start you with quite, I'll lead you through the questions to give

[00:17:05] you time to think, but could you give us an overview on your, what's your undiscovered gem? There's a hotel. So I'm from the San Francisco Bay area and we have our very own wine country in our backyard. Most people know Napa. And the truth is there are quite a few other towns and counties that are part of the greater wine country in Northern California. A place that has my heart

[00:17:30] is Appellation Healdsburg, which is a culinary focused. See the food, the food thing is, is very high on my agenda, given my, my previous forays and food writing. So it is a culinary led resort opened by a chef, Charlie Palmer, everybody in the Bay Area knows him and they just want, so it was a gem of mine as of six months ago, an undiscovered gem. But unfortunately, unfortunately

[00:17:58] for me, fortunately for them, it is now highly, it is a well-discovered gem because they just won travel and leisures award for best resort in the U.S. Wow. And all within less than a year, I think they had their soft opening September or October 2025. And I think the awards came out this summer. So fast work, well-deserved, so well-deserved. They are located in a town called Healdsburg,

[00:18:27] which is in Sonoma County, not Napa County. If you will imagine Northern California's wine country is a three-tined fork. Sonoma County and therefore Healdsburg is on the far left of that fork. And I, I can't say enough about that property. It's, it's just, you know, it's very, very compact, very family friendly, but it just packs a punch. Then, then, okay. Now related to that, can we have a slightly different answer if, if that's okay for your favorite hotel?

[00:18:56] My favorite hotel is in my favorite city. I love, I love Italy as much as the next American, but Amsterdam has my heart. Always has, always will. There's just something about Amsterdam that, that, you know, wins me over. It's, it's, it's got art, it's got history, it's kind of gloomy and moody. It's got these, you know, sort of uneven crumbly paths, roads that, you know, make me stumble if I'm

[00:19:23] not looking, but in the best way possible. And my favorite hotel is it's, it's kind of a toss up between Pulitzer Amsterdam and the brand new Rosewood, which I've had the pleasure of staying at both earlier in the spring. Pulitzer, the Pulitzer is just very whimsical. And it's a string of like, I think 10 canal houses on Prinsengracht. And it's, again, it's sort of, you know, uneven staircases

[00:19:48] and, you know, little nooks and crannies. And I've never seen a bar painted with, with black wall. Like it's a very specific shade of like a black green. And it just makes you, you, it's almost like you're in, you know, a vimier, like it, you can close your eyes and imagine what the city looked like 500 years ago. And it just celebrated its 750th birthday. So it knows a thing or two about,

[00:20:15] you know, moody, gloomy historic, historical walls. The Rosewood is quite interesting. It just launched, I believe in 2024, I want to say 2024, 2025. And it, it, it has a very dramatic history. I think at one point it was a children's hospital and then prior to that, a prison. So they

[00:20:39] still, they've, they've actually kept the prison cells and they've done it up now. But it's, it's just, you know, these one thing that I really appreciate about the Rosewood portfolio is that they always pick properties that offer a sense of place. And, you know, these aren't just hotels that they launch at a blistering pace. They really think through things and they really, it's very intentional in, in how they incorporate the history of that building of that property or that site.

[00:21:09] So Rosewood Amsterdam, Pulitzer Amsterdam, toss up for my favorites. And Amsterdam is the city. Amsterdam is my city. April, I do wonder if you did mention Italy, if I was to press you into a favorite Italian city, what would your answer be? I did have a, a one year sabbatical in 2014 when I left my tech career and I was just completely fried.

[00:21:33] I lived in Rome for a summer. And again, there's just something about Rome. I know it's, it's sort of over touristy now and perhaps it, what it always has been. But again, there's something about Rome that is just so, it reveals herself. She reveals herself in ways that you least expect. And there

[00:21:57] is a version of Rome. There's a slice of Rome for everyone. I, I, I pressed, I might have to pick Rome. In spite of all the other grand, grand cities. I thought I should ask just in case you said Florence, because I could go jackpot. Right, right. We do have a thing for, for Florence and for Italy. I was asking that one for Michaela as well. Okay. The final question for you, what does your perfect vacation look like, April?

[00:22:23] The criteria for my perfect vacation is really quite simple. It's family and having a frictionless journey. And what I mean by that is, you know, I think for me that the people that I'm with, it makes the trip that much more memorable. I really enjoy seeing new places, familiar places through the eyes of my loved ones. Frictionless, preferably. I, I myself would work with a travel

[00:22:50] advisor. You have, you have, as you mentioned. Yes, as I, and you know, have him or her take care of that cognitive load so that I could just arrive and enjoy and, you know, savor the moment truly. Second, my second response to that question would be, I do have an aspirational trip. I have a milestone birthday coming up. Hard to believe. I know looking at me, but 50 is not too far away.

[00:23:15] And so I'm shaking my head if anyone's listening. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I would love to go to, uh, the Brando, which is one of those one in a lifetime, you know, full island resorts in French Polynesia. That, that would be an aspirational trip for me, but it's, it's not, it's not going to be an aspirational trip without my family and my loved ones. There we go. April, that's fantastic. Just,

[00:23:41] just before we, we, we let you go, how do people contact you? What's the best way of getting in touch? You can hit me up at april at celebratedtravel.com or feel free to give me a ring, a text. I respond to bat signals if you'd like at, uh, area code 415-275-2608. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you so much for taking the time, April. Thank you for having me.