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INTRODUCTION

The average consumer is bombarded with 3,000 (or more) commercial messages every day. The battle for mindshare is intense.

Within the travel industry, the competition may be for “share of suitcase” but, in reality, travel products and services compete with every discretionary consumer spend, from appliances to new cars to home renovations.

And to complicate things further, every four years travel enterprises, from home-based advisors to the largest tour operator, must compete against a presidential election for consumers’ attention.

The entries that are recognized in the 16th annual Travel Weekly Magellan Awards demonstrate that the industry is more than up to the task attracting consumer attention amidst a din of competing messages. Once again, your peers have produced inspiring promotional campaigns and travel product designs. I’ve been involved in every Magellan program from its inception, and this year’s group has impressed me like none that came before.

The creativity on display is across the board, with tour operators, travel advisors, cruise lines, air carriers, hoteliers, destinations, car rental companies, travel insurers and the tech companies that serve the travel industry recognized for the innovative ways they communicate to and serve their guests. From concept to executions, every company that earns a Silver or Gold Magellan has achieved a level of excellence that rose far above their competitors.

Magellan awards honor the best examples of design and promotion, ones that blend the exact right words, materials, shapes, colors and technology to create impressions that stimulate and inspire travelers.

Magellan winners are those marketers and designers whose exploration of travel’s possibilities rings true and stands out. Their carefully crafted communications, whether spoken, printed, posted, broadcast or streamed, expand the possibilities of what travel can mean.

The art of conceiving, composing and distributing inspiration on the sales and marketing side and the alchemical process that transforms abstract creative thought into physical beauty on the design side is reflected in what you’re about to review. Enjoy your tour of the best of the best.

Arnie Weissmann
Executive Vice President and Editor in Chief, Travel Weekly

METHODOLOGY

The Magellan awards honor the best in travel and applaud the talented travel professionals behind it all, from design to marketing to services.

This year’s awards recognize a extensive range of industry segments: Airlines and Airports; Cruise Lines; Destinations; Ground Transportation; Hospitality; Online Travel Services; Tour Operators; and Travel Advisors and Agencies.

Entrants submitted various multimedia elements, such as photos and videos; print materials; and websites, and a panel of 19 highly respected travel industry authorities judged the entries (none judged categories in which they work or have worked).

Entries do not compete with one another but are instead judged against a standard of excellence based on the long experience of Travel Weekly and considering the category entered.

Judges were asked, for example, to consider how relevant the elements of an entry were to its sector of the travel industry, how well designed the supporting elements were and whether they found the entry “appealing or intriguing.”

Those entries scoring between 90 and 100 were given gold Magellans. These entries were considered by the judges to be clearly excellent and the best of the best. Entries scoring from 80 to 90 were deemed outstanding work and were awarded silver Magellans.

Therefore, there might be multiple gold or silver winners in a particular category, or only silver winners, or no winners at all.

MEET THE JUDGES

Travel Weekly is proud to present this esteemed panel of industry experts who have generously volunteered their time to judge and celebrate the achievements of the 2024 Magellan Award winners.

Richard Bangs

Bangs is a pioneer in travel, digital media, e-commerce and other frontiers. He produced the first internet travel site, the first travel CD ROM (The Adventure Disc) and the first virtual expeditions. His list of contributions to the world of travel and media includes publishing more than 1,000 articles, 19 books, producing numerous documentaries and lecturing at notable venues. He is host and executive producer of Richard Bangs’ Quests for PBS.

Jean-Claude Baumgarten

An influential leader in global tourism for more than 50 years, Jean-Claude Baumgarten has held executive positions at Air France and World Travel & Tourism Council, where he was a CEO and Vice Chairman. Baumgarten established CREWE Associates in 2011, where he is currently Chairman and CEO. The company provides consulting services to private companies and governments.

Bruce Beckham

Bruce Beckham is a consultant in the travel and tourism industry specializing in travel industry philanthropy and corporate social responsibility.  He is the Executive Advisor and the former Executive Director and CEO of the travel industry’s award-winning, non-profit organization, Tourism Cares. He is a Certified Tourism Professional, the former owner of a travel agency and packaged tour company, and a former president of NTA.

Harry Dalgaard

Dalgaard has 40 years of experience in different areas of the travel industry, including airline, retail travel agency and tour operator. He is the Founder and President of international tour operator Avanti Destinations, Inc. He has held several positions at the USTOA, where currently he is Vice Chairman. He also has been on the advisory boards of the German National Tourist Office and Atout France for many years.

Dorothy Dowling

Dowling, managing director at HTL Group, brings over 40 years of hospitality experience, helping global clients boost scale, revenue, and profitability through strategic marketing. An advocate for women and underrepresented groups, she served as chief marketing officer at Best Western for 18 years. Dowling’s leadership spans private, public, and nonprofit sectors, earning her multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards for contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion. She holds an Honors BA and MA from the University of Waterloo and certifications from Harvard, MIT and Cornell.

Peter Greenberg

An award-winning reporter and producer, Peter Greenberg is the travel editor for CBS News and host of the national CBS “Eye on Travel” radio show, broadcast from a different location around the world each week. He hosts the public television show “The Travel Detective with Peter Greenberg,” a series of 40+ half-hour episodes featuring travel news, must-have information and insider tips.

Paula Hayes

Over four decades, Paula Hayes has led award-winning sales teams for The Big Red Boat, SuperClubs, Club Med, the Globus family of brands and Avalon Waterways.  She is an active member of ASTA, CLIA, and PATH. As an advocate for the agency community, she has been awarded most recently with the Female Leaders in Travel Luminary Award, by TravelAge West for Outstanding Service to the Travel Industry in the West and by Travel Weekly with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Karen Hughes

Karen Hughes has over 40 years of experience in tourism and hospitality, beginning as a retail travel agent with AAA and American Express. She held senior management roles with Pleasant Holidays and spent 16 years at Starwood Hotels, overseeing sales, marketing, and revenue for its Hawaii and Tahiti resorts. Karen later served as Starwood’s vice president of global leisure sales. Most recently, she held leadership roles in Hawaii’s tourism sector, including vice president positions at the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Johnny Jet

John E. DiScala, aka Johnny Jet, has traveled over 100,000 miles a year since starting his newsletter in 1995 and has visited close to 100 countries. He and his website JohnnyJet.com have been mentioned in major publications, including USA Today and The Los Angeles Times and he has appeared on network TV. He was named one of Forbes Top 10 Travel Influencers.

Rob Kwortnik, PhD

Dr. Kwortnik is an Associate Professor of Services Marketing at Cornell School of Hotel Administration. He has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing, The Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. He has been honored nine times as a Teacher of the Year at Cornell and is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.

Bob Lambert

Bob Lambert spent over 30 years with Avis Budget Group and its predecessor companies, where he held multiple senior leadership positions, both in the field and at a headquarters level. He is currently a Managing Director in the Scottsdale, Ariz., office of executive search firm Harvard Group International (HGI), focusing on multiple industries, including non-profit, travel and transportation and sports and entertainment.

Marilyn Macallair

Marilyn has spent more than 40 years in marketing and sales in the travel industry. In 2018, she retired as VP, Business Development at Passport Online, a leader in technology solutions for the leisure travel market. Marilyn managed marketing and sales, customer support and training, and email marketing/social media at Passport and was also account manager for Passport’s leading consortia customers. Since retiring, Marilyn provides consulting services to Passport Online and Phocuswright.

Rudy Maxa

Maxa is the host and executive producer of “Rudy Maxa’s World,” the Emmy Award-winning public television travel series. His 95 television episodes air on public television stations nationwide and in 121 countries in 22 different languages on Travel Channel International. The voice of National Geographic Traveler’s “Walks of a Lifetime” podcasts, he also hosts the weekly travel radio show “RM World Travel with Rudy Maxa and Robert & Mary Carey.”

Kathy Misunas

Misunas currently serves as an advisor and Board Director to various public and private businesses, and acts as a principal of Essential Ideas, a consultancy specializing in the global travel and tourism, technology and online retailing fields. Previously, she was CEO of SABRE, CIO of American Airlines and CEO of Reed Travel Group. Misunas is a co-author of the publication Multi-Channel Distribution: The Essential Guide.

Norie Quintos

Quintos is a consultant for the travel industry on communications strategy, media relations, custom content and messaging. An award-winning journalist, she is an Editor at Large for National Geographic Travel Media. She is the former executive editor of National Geographic Traveler and was an editor at U.S. News and World Report and Caribbean Travel and Life. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund.

Brian Robb

Robb is a travel industry consultant who started his long travel career in sales and sales management, representing an international airline and hotel group. He followed that with roles at Carlson Companies, including Global Vice President of Marketing. More recently, he served as Board Chair for The Travel Institute until 2021 and provided corporate and product strategies at La Macchia Enterprises.

Bruce Shulman

Shulman, a veteran in the travel industry, served as vice president of sales and marketing for Holiday Inns of the Caribbean and the Sands Hotels and Casinos, and president of tourism for Grand Bahama Island. He joined Northstar Travel Group in 1999 as national director of Hotel & Travel Index. Shulman moved to Travel Weekly in 2005 as director of advertising, became associate publisher in 2008, and was named group publisher of Travel Weekly and TravelAge West in 2015. He retired last year.

Ned Walker

John E. “Ned” Walker served as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer of Delta Air Lines Inc., from 2008 until his retirement in 2019. Walker joined Delta from Continental Airlines Inc., where he served for 21 years as a leading communications strategist. He retired from Continental in 2008 as a member of the airline’s Management Committee and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications.

Wayne Wielgus

A hospitality industry veteran of more than 30 years, Wielgus is the founder of the International Advisor Group, a consultancy for the hospitality industry. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Celebrity Cruises and Azamara and Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Choice Hotels International.