Collaboration in Recovery, with Lisa Doerner

Episode 217

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Lisa Doerner’s background is in marketing and operations, but her path into the travel and tourism industry is an unusual one. She started her career working for a large corporation in product marketing, and then working as an Executive Director for a technology association. These roles set the groundwork for her current position as Executive Director for Travel Alliance Partners, a corporation owned by Tour Operators.

Lisa leads the management team in developing operational and marketing strategies to help Travel Alliance Partners strengthen their partnerships, increase their business and expand their company tour portfolios.

The past year has found Lisa and her team reimagining how they can deliver a quality travel industry conference to TAP’s audience of industry suppliers.

Destination on the Left is joined by Lisa Doerner, Executive Director for Travel Alliance Partners. TAP is a North American corporation owned by tour operators from the U.S. and Canada, each with their own unique geographical expertise. On our podcast, Lisa joins us to talk about how TAP has been supporting its tour operators and PPTPs throughout the pandemic. She also discusses the creativity and collaboration behind the live event her team is producing in 2021, as well as how it will ignite travel this year and beyond.

What You Will Learn:

  • Lisa’s journey into travel and tourism
  • What Lisa and her team have done to support tour operators throughout the pandemic
  • How TAP maintains relationships with PPTPs or preferred, professional, travel providers
  • How tap has used innovation and cutting edge thinking to help tourism professionals survive the pandemic
  • How TAP’s virtual event platform has enabled tour operators and their partners to continue developing relationships
  • The live event TAP is producing in 2021, and how it will ignite travel this year and beyond
  • How we can work together during the recovery of the travel and tourism industry

Travel Alliance Partners

Destination on the Left is joined by Lisa Doerner, Executive Director for Travel Alliance Partners. TAP is a North American corporation owned by tour operators from the U.S. and Canada, each with their own unique geographical expertise. On our podcast, Lisa joins us to talk about how TAP has been supporting its tour operators and PPTPs throughout the pandemic. She also discusses the creativity and collaboration behind the live event her team is producing in 2021, as well as how it will ignite travel this year and beyond.

TAP’s Coopetition Model

As the travel and tourism industry starts to return from the pandemic, collaboration is a critical component of recovery. TAP has always been way ahead of its time with innovation and collaboration, as they have been a focus since the organization’s inception in 2001. Their original business model was designed to bring competitors together so that everyone’s business could grow. That mode of operation continues today as the 15-25 tour operators in TAP buy and sell each other’s products and services to generate more tourism dollars for everyone.

Going Virtual

Since TAP is a company of tour operators, many of its team members saw departures for 2020 halt entirely. As they manage rebookings and try to stay afloat until travel fully reopens again, TAP has done everything in its power to support them. Early on, Lisa made the decision to host one of the travel industry’s first virtual events. TAP brought together a broad spectrum of tour operators and the PPTPs to create a platform through which they could continue to develop relationships. It was met with some resistance at first, but virtual events are now the gold standard for tourism professionals in all kinds of verticals. TAP’s approach to collaboration and innovation has helped many tour operators navigate the challenges of the pandemic, and there is a lot we can learn from it.

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