Ridgefield travel agent receives industry recognition

A Ridgefield local is headed to a resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this July as a result of a nomination to an elite group of travel advisors for a national conference.

Shaunette White, travel advisor and head of Castaway Cruise and Travel, was selected to attend the flagship Global Travel Marketplace (GTM) event as an Ambassador this year, a Travel Weekly/TravelAge West release stated. As ambassador, she is one of 20 out of the more than 800 applications to be attending that event in that capacity.

Being selected as an Ambassador requires a number of qualifications, the release stated, including industry references, confirmation of sales and an evaluation of their business model.

Those selected to attend “are truly the best in the business,” Northstar Travel Group Senior Vice President of Events Alicia Evanko-Lewis stated in the release. Most of those attending GTN have more than 20 years of experience in the industry, which makes the nomination even more noteworthy as White, 32, began her career as a travel agent in earnest in 2013.

White was honored to be named in one of the “elite” groups of industry professionals.

“It validates what I’ve been doing and how hard I’ve been working,” White said.

GTM events are a different kind of industry conference, as usually conferences “are all about the supplier, the wholesaler. You have to go up to them and find them,” White said. “This one is all about the suppliers coming to us to try to get our business, essentially.”

White had attended the sister event, GTM West, last year as a regular agent. She said that attending last year helped to ramp up her own business, specifically on the connections she made in the industry, passing on that benefit to her clients.

Currently Castaways is running out of a home office in Ridgefield, where White and her family moved to in 2015. Eventually she plans on opening up an office.

While the rise of travel booking websites has impacted the travel agent industry, the internet has provided White with her primary source of clientele. She said about 90 percent of her business comes through social media.

When it comes to the value of a travel agent even with the number of booking sites, White said having an insider with connections can help make the best out of an occasion with relationships forged in events like the GTM ones.

“I go to Disneyland at least every other year. I know every manager that works at all of those hotels, so when my clients go, I’m the one sending (manager) a quick message, ‘hey, my clients are coming to visit, can you upgrade them,’” White said. “You’re not going to get that with any online retailer.”

White said a travel agent also has experience with online ratings, where some are askew with shaky standards and the possibility of an outright lie.

White said the “star” ratings of hotels aren’t an industry standard.

“I could literally say I have a five-star hotel in my house,” she said.

Instead, American Automobile Association diamond ratings are used, which are more standardized than the often user-generated ratings.

“And then the pictures could be 30 years old; there’s no regulations at all,” White said.

White said travel agents go the extra mile for their clients.

“It’s not about needing somebody, it’s about wanting somebody,” she said.

White said the relationship between clients and their families makes being a travel agent worthwhile.

“You get to be a small part of their vacation, and their family experiences and their memories,“ White said. “I think that’s what makes me the happiest.”