Air Canada Vacations helping advisors work smarter, not harder

Air Canada Vacations wrapped up its 7 city, cross-Canada Dream Makers product launch series in Toronto this week, welcoming some 1,300 travel advisors at the Universal EventSpace in Vaughan for an evening that just buzzed with high energy as the tour company introduced its 2026-2027 winter offerings – and a whole lot more — to the retail travel community.

In 2026, ACV added two new stops – Calgary and Quebec City — to its Dream Makers roadshow, as well as bringing its buzz to Halifax, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal, before arriving in Toronto for this week’s event. All of the shows were sold out by the way.

“You know what, [tonight is] really about partnerships. You’ll hear the team talk about how valuable our partnerships are. Our partnerships with our suppliers. Our partnerships with our trade partners, the travel agent community,” Air Canada Vacations’ Vice President, Nino Montagnese told Travel Press Today.

It was also about providing advisors with some insights into ACV’s massive product portfolio, particularly the kinds of trends that the operator was seeing in the marketplace. Intelligence that Montagnese said the ACV was always being asked for.

Along with those insights, the tour company’s Vice President said that the event was also about technology and how ACV was giving advisors “the tools that they need to do their job.” So, that they can work “smarter, not harder and you’ll hear Erminia (Gallina, Director of Sales for ACV) say that quite a bit. That we want advisors to work smarter, not harder,” Montagnese explained.

To that end, ACV’s Director of Sales, Erminia Gallina told TPT, that because of the tour company’s breadth of product, it’s preparing to launch its own B2B portal early next week. The new portal will be home to all things ACV, including its tools, training manuals and all of its B2B communications, which should definitely help advisors work smarter, not harder.

Now it you’re wondering what the new B2B portal is going to be called, Gallina said that at each of its 2026 launches, ACV has been “asking our advisors to name the portal because we’re trying to get them involved in what we’re doing.”

Asked for a hint as to what the name might be, Gallina told TPT that the industry will just have to wait until Sept. 28 for the answer to that question.

For those out there who think print is dead, think again. Gallina said that while some might think printing a brochure is a bit too old school, Air Canada Vacations is continuing to print its Sun Toolkit brochure which is its advisor-dedicated guide to everything that ACV does.

One of the big news stories for ACV in 2026 is the fact that Air Canada is transitioning 45 retrofitted B737 MAX 8 aircraft to the Air Canada Rouge fleet.

“For ACV and anybody who’s ever flown on a Rouge flight, honestly, this is transformational for us,” Gallina observed, adding that all 45 aircraft are expected to be in service for Rouge by the end of 2026.

Those aircraft have all been retrofitted with updated and modernized interiors, leading Gallina to observe that: “Now our customers are going to have seatback entertainment – which is wonderful.  WiFi, which is critical for us.”

Now, Gallina said, “the biggest message that we need to get out — not just to the advisors but to the consumers who have ever flown us before” is that these are newly refitted and refurbish aircraft and offer an amazing experience. In fact, she added, “they’re a game changer for ACV.”

The operator also put Groups in the spotlight during all of its Dream Makers events, with Gallina telling TPT that for ACV, group business is “huge.”

She said that: “Tonight, we’re going to explore 7 top things you need to know with ACV when it comes to Groups.” It’s everything from technology to self-serve to dedicated workshops — where we’ve actually hired a professional coach to put together these workshops and they’ll be like nothing they’ve [advisors] have ever seen in this industry – to, internally, dedicating our own resources and hiring our own Groups National Coordinator. So, Groups is going to be a huge focus for us.”

Montagnese agreed and said that at each of its launches, the tour company talked about its Insta Quote tool for groups, and how ACV was “enhancing the flexibility that an agent is going to have on the [Insta Quote] tool … adding more functionality.”

As for the takeaway for advisors attending the Toronto event – in fact, at all of this  year’s launches – Montagnese said he wants advisors to “understand that we are building partnerships with them. That they can depend on us and knowing that we [ACV] offer the globe, they should always, always check with Air Canada Vacations before booking because we most likely will have the product that they need.”