NEW YORK -- By the end of the year, Travel Leaders Group
(TLG) is on track to pass its goal number of agents signed up for Apex, its
partnership with American Express enabling advisers to service Gold and
Platinum card members.
The program was introduced during the Travel Leaders Network
conference in June.
Agents who complete a training course can service personal and business Gold
and Platinum card members using a number of exclusive offers through the Travel
Collection by Travel Leaders Group.
Travel Leader Group CEO Ninan Chacko called the program "a
game-changer" for TLG on Tuesday at a press event held in conjunction with
a luxury-focused trade show at Chelsea Piers here. Apex is open to any advisers
across TLG's family of brands.
"Interest has been quite broad across all of our
brands," Chacko said.
This year, TLG aimed to have "below a couple of
thousand" advisers signed up for Apex.
"I think we'll trend well past that," the CEO
said.
TLG has around 50,000 agents across all of its brands, which
include Travel Leaders Network,
Altour, Nexion, Protravel International and Tzell Travel Group.
Considering Apex started midyear with smaller test groups of
agents and American Express recently relaunched its Gold card, Chacko said it
is "off to a rousing start."
"But I still think this is one of those things that is
a slow ramp, and so we expect it to continue to ramp nicely throughout 2019,"
he said.
Chacko expects more industry partners to get involved in the
Travel Collection. Already, some destinations are getting involved by providing
content, such as itineraries.