At the recent Goldman Group conference, David Kolner, Executive Vice President, Virtuoso presented on the group’s considerable growth and the importance of the Australian and New Zealand markets. Karryon Luxury spoke with Kolner to learn more.
Fresh from attending the Virtuoso 2024 Chairman’s Event in Slovenia, Virtuoso’s David Kolner headed to Melbourne to present at the Goldman Group conference hosted at Crown.
Speaking to Karryon Luxury, Kolner emphasised the importance of Virtuoso’s partnership with the Goldman Group and what it means to the network; and in the strengthening its presence in the Australian market.
“As a family owned company, I just love that aspect. Virtuoso is a family owned business as well, founded by the Upchurch family – so I love seeing the Goldman family businesses be successful and grow, and multi generational involvement with the business,” said Kolner.
The innovation of the Goldman Group and its “progress on all fronts” he says is inspiring, including its partnership with Smartflyer.
“They are working with a global brand, bringing a certain mindset and a philosophy for the right type of advisor that just believes in that same way of doing business,” said Kolner.
He says that Virtuoso is “heavily steered” by its Global Member Advisory Board, which Anthony Goldman has served on.
“It’s an advisory group that helps Virtuoso make decisions, communicate changes, and apprise us of what’s going on in the industry. Anthony helped us pilot all of that through the pandemic. He’s been the Chair of the Global Member Advisory Board recently, and he was the first non-US Chair, which is so amazing. Anthony really helped refocus Virtuoso on the global opportunity and the global high net worth traveller that we’re all going after,” said Kolner.
Kolner says that Anthony Goldman being awarded the Southern Cross award at the Virtuoso Australia and New Zealand forum in Bangkok in March 2024 was a deserved accolade.
“The award recognises extraordinary contribution to the industry and to the Virtuoso network, and we totally surprised him at the Forum event in Bangkok. Anthony had no idea it was coming and I think it really meant a lot to him.. it was lovely to see,” he said.
Changing face of Virtuoso and the importance of the Australian market
Virtuoso has changed rapidly in recent years, says Kolner, with almost 50 per cent of its advisors now based outside of the United States.
“Now, from our 20,000 plus advisors, that’s more than 10,000 who are based in other countries aside from the US – and we really are a global mindset. I think that makes us quite a bit different, because you’re working in a community of the very best travel advisors in 55 countries plus around the world,” said Kolner.
He describes the Australian and New Zealand partnership as “fundamental” to the business.
“Australia is the second oldest region for Virtuoso, behind Latin America by just a couple years. Australian members have been advising Virtuoso for more than 20 years now.
“I think the Australian market is similar in some ways to the US market, and there’s always kind of an American mindset and Australians have a shared kindredness with America – but of course, they are still completely different and unique.
“What I think makes the partnership special is that Aussies are keen to try new things, but they’re also happy to tell you what’s going wrong. They’re very forthright about that, and that actually is exactly what you need: someone who’s open to change and willing to try new things and experiment, but you need someone to also tell you the honest truth. I think that culturally, those two things are kind of unique to the Australia and New Zealand market,” said Kolner.
He says that the entrepreneurial spirit of Australians has been another reason why home based advisors have “really taken off” in Australia.
Opportunities for growth that await
Kolner, who shared a presentation prior to our interview at the Goldman Conference, said the absolute headline for him is “growth.”
“What we looked at earlier today with the stats from Credit Suisse, UBS and Knight Frank, is the amount of growth that is happening amongst high net worth and ultra high net worth consumers. It’s an expected 30 per cent growth in the next three to five years. The market is expanding significantly as Australia becomes an ever wealthier country.
“I would say the other element about us at Virtuoso is that we don’t really consider ourselves as a competitor to other networks or other agency organisations. Our competition is people who book direct and do DIY travel. We want to enlighten those people. That is the market we are going for, and it is huge.
“We need more advisors to join us in helping to create better travel experiences for these millions of Aussies that do it themselves today and don’t even know what the benefits are of using a travel advisor.
Kolner predicts still a large amount of growth still to come which he says will come in two ways.
“One is that I highly encourage all advisors to make sure they have a great mix of clients that they like. If there ever was a time for you to think about your client mix, now is the time to swap out some of your clients because there are many more affiliate travellers coming, and especially younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z that really appreciate the services of an advisor.
“The second thing is that we just need more people to become travel advisors. And I love all of the Virtuoso host agency members here in the market that provide amazing choices for people that want to start a home-based business; or also find their perfect match for wherever they are.”
Kolner says the group is continuing to invest in advisor development, stating that they have a dedicated, full-time team member in this market working solely on professional member development and training.
Programs are focused on upscaling current advisors around such issues as strategy around fees and charges etc; while its Virtuoso Certified Travel Advisor program is now delivered locally in Australia.
“It’s a multi month intensive program to help you launch your travel business and to really to help people build a business plan and look at what kind of clients they want. They can ask themselves ‘how are you going to talk about yourself? How do you represent Virtuoso? How do you represent your host agency affiliation?’ So it’s really a great way to get your business launched,” said Kolner.
Virtuoso will host the 2025 Virtuoso Forum Australia and New Zealand in Perth between 24-26 February.
