Travel Leaders Network’s Christine James talks EDGE 2025 in Las Vegas
Travel Press Today had a chance to chat with Travel Leaders Network’s vice-president, Canada, Christine James at the group’s 2025 Edge Conference in Las Vegas this week.
Among other things James talked about the conference theme, training and support, key issues and more.
What’s the theme for this year’s conference and why is it important?
The theme which Travel Leaders Network has adopted for the past 10 years is EDGE which stands for Educate, Discover, Gather, Evolve. This references the four key pillars of why members join TLN and how they retain a continually growing membership base.
Who are some of this year’s suppliers and what can they expect from this year’s conference?
Travel Leaders relies heavily on strong supplier relationships who are pivotal in providing exclusive member deals, training and support as well as personalized travel experiences to their clients. At the EDGE2025 conference there are approximately 167 exhibitors/suppliers in attendance, which is a really great turn out. The sold-out trade show featured exhibitors spanning a wide array of companies ranging from cruise lines, hotels, rental car and transportation companies to tourism boards, visitors bureaus and tour operators.
What are some of the supplier benefits of attending EDGE?
In 2025 Travel Leaders Network has increased its product offerings and enhanced its vast portfolio for member agencies by welcoming 10 new travel suppliers for its Canadian members this year. Suppliers benefit from attending EDGE by being face to face with members and providing them with first hand supplier updates and tools Travel Leaders has provided to help sell products easily.
This year, Travel Leaders Network expanded their airport folio in Canada with point of sale agreements with over 30 airlines via GDS/IATA and with their new SNAP Air platform which rolled out in Canada on May 19.
What are some of the major issues TL Network focused on this year?
This is a challenging year regardless of which side of the border our members reside, but a bigger issue for Canadians. Many Canadians are altering their travel plans to the U.S. But the good news is they are not cancelling their plans entirely but instead altering plans to Europe, Mexico, Caribbean. We’re still trending year over year overall with all our business. 2024 was a banner year, so to be in this positive position despite all the economic uncertainty and still sustain strong growth is very encouraging.
What are some of the big announcements you’re excited to share?
Especially for Canada, the big announcements include new enhancements to the SNAP booking engine. We launched with hotel and car, but the air component was missing as we waited to make sure we did it right. SNAP Air was launched in Canada to a beta group in March 2025. We made some adjustments, then went fully live on May 19.
To date, there has been very positive feedback, but we are still working on enhancing and developing. There were 103 airlines when launched live in May which is still pretty sustainable. The beauty of this is for our non GDS and IATA members, it still gives them the ability to make commission on air and earn revenue.
Many agencies are hesitant on booking air because they are afraid of getting debit memos and booking with this new tool takes the fear away from them. Other big news for Canada is the launch of Social Share Pro. One of the biggest challenge for agents and owners is that they must be active and current with social media. With Social Share Pro now open to Canadian members, this new tool gives permission for Travel Leaders Network to post content on their behalf.
How is the Canadian membership performing and what’s the retention rate?
Canadian membership is performing very well! Travel Leaders Network added over 40 new members last year and over 20 this year to date, trending way ahead of what we would be expecting in terms of new member acquisitions.
Last year we finished our retention rate at 98.7% – that difference was due to members who decided to retire or decided they didn’t want to run their own business so they decided to join an existing house agency so revenue still stays in house. We are so happy to see the number of Canadian members who still made the decision to invest their time to attend our EDGE Conference. At the end of January TLN had over 200 members registered, but due to the tariff situation they saw some drop off, but people that were on the waitlist decided that they still wanted to come.
With 154 Canadian members in attendance, still higher than an average year, would have had their best year ever if it wasn’t for the political situation. Members who did decide to make the investment of their time are all really happy and learning a lot and benefitting from the networking and the knowledge they are gaining…and with all the great speakers, especially with the likes of Sir Richard Branson on the main stage there are huge benefits for everyone in attendance!
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