Friday, 14 August 2026 22:05

Kiwis turn up for major Virtuoso event

Kiwis at Virtuoso Week in Las Vegas…Gerard Murphy, Bon Voyage;  Penny Åhlfeld, North Shore Business Travel; Jo O’Neill, Holland Clarke and Beatson; Cindy Bakewell, The Private Travel Company; Hayley Dawson, Nic Masu both APTI Kiwis at Virtuoso Week in Las Vegas…Gerard Murphy, Bon Voyage; Penny Åhlfeld, North Shore Business Travel; Jo O’Neill, Holland Clarke and Beatson; Cindy Bakewell, The Private Travel Company; Hayley Dawson, Nic Masu both APTI

A New Zealand contingent is amongst attendees at the 38th annual Virtuoso Week in Las Vegas. The event, which concludes today, is Virtuoso’s premier global event and involves 4,800 significant players from 105 countries.

 It is being held across Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Vdara Hotel & Spa.

Virtuoso chair and CEO, Matthew Upchurch marked 40 years of the network by unveiling its most significant technology initiative to date – a propriety intelligence capability built on AI models but grounded in Virtuoso’s own data.

Executive vice-president of strategic communications, David Kolner, reported on another record year for the network: sales pacing more than 20% higher year-over-year with every region growing, hotel rates continuing to climb and forward bookings one to two years out surging. Kolner pointed to the themes reshaping luxury travel, from ‘fall is the new summer’ and a wellness-travel boom to rising AI adoption across the network and unprecedented demand for professional travel advisors.