Globetrotting with Ray Snisky: Insights and Innovations in Today's Travel Landscape

Join us for a fascinating journey with travel industry titan & ALG Group President Ray Snisky. Ray shares his personal travel favorites, like Italy's Lake Como, and delves into ALG Vacations' growth and strategy post-COVID, highlighting the shift towards unique and daring traveler experiences. We also explore ALG's integration with Hyatt, the potential of AI in enhancing travel, and Tulum's emerging allure. Plus, get insider tips on uncovering local hidden gems and travel hacks for air travel and hotel stays. To top it off, we celebrate the announcement of the Virgin Voyage Cruise giveaway winner!

Introduction and Special Guest Ray Snisky

Mike Putman: Welcome to No Tourists Allowed, a podcast where two recognized travel industry executives with a combined 71 years on the inside of travel and technology give up their secrets to the thing everyone wants to do: travel better, pay less, and see more of the world. Here are your hosts Mike Putman and James Ferrara.

Mike Putman: Hello, everyone. I'm Mike Putman.

James Ferrara: And I'm James Ferrara, and we are live from a beautiful Omni Resort somewhere near Orlando today. ChampionsGate, apparently. I know you don't know anything about championship golf, but they have a couple of nice golf courses here. They have a father-son PGA event which normally happens in December during the slow period, so we should see that coming up this month. It's either this month or next month. Tiger Woods plays with his son and they have a big time. We are down here in a little bit warmer Florida, although this conference room that we're meeting in is ice cold. I'm afraid to sneeze because it could send out frozen projectiles. But anyhow, I'm glad to be here and glad to have a special guest with us. Welcome, Ray Snisky. Thanks for joining us.

Ray Snisky: Thank you, Mike. Thrilled to be here.

James Ferrara: Ray Snisky is an old friend, one of our most important partners at my company, and a very well-liked and respected man in the industry. That is quite an accomplishment to have such an important position and still be liked.

Ray Snisky: Thank you very much. It's good to see you're a Boston Red Sox fan, based on what's behind you.

Mike Putman: Funny story, my daughter is going to Northeastern right now and I told her, "Listen, enjoy Boston, love everything. If I see you with a Red Sox jersey, you're paying for college."

Ray Snisky: My son goes to Northeastern too, Mike, so there we have that. Small world. Now I know I'm on the right track.

Travel Preferences: Rapid-Fire Questions

Mike Putman: Well, good. Ray Snisky, we like to start off the conversation with a few personal rapid-fire questions where we try to find out a little bit more about you as a traveler and your personal and corporate travel. Just the first thing that comes to mind, real quickly, we'll run through a few questions. First of all, what is your favorite hotel brand or an individual property?

Ray Snisky: I love new, fancy, and innovative, so it's the new Impression by Secrets brand that's part of the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. These are a few resorts that have just blown the doors off of the inclusive segment and would be rivaled by any other resort throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world. It is a truly spectacular brand.

Mike Putman: Excellent. And then what is your favorite destination?

Ray Snisky: What a hard question for people like us that are travel lifers. I guess if I just had one day to spend somewhere, it probably would be Lake Como in Italy. The Swiss Alps overlooking it, and my wife and I spent part of our honeymoon there. It was just a magical place.

James Ferrara: Beautiful choice. It would be a long way to go for one day if that was just your one-day trip, though.

Ray Snisky: Depends on how important it is and how fast you can get there.

Mike Putman: If there was one trip that you've done in a destination—and I'm thinking about a day trip, a day tour, or possibly a shore excursion if you would have been on a cruise—does one come to mind that just stands head and shoulders above everything else?

Ray Snisky: Another tough question when you travel as much as we all do, but the one that jumps out at me is when I took a helicopter with my wife and my four-year-old son. We landed in the Jurassic Park waterfall scene from the movie and went out there and took some pictures. Then on the Big Island, I had planned a day where we actually landed on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Someone had set up champagne, a cheese board, and everything. It was really spectacular. We landed in this little grass area, went over looking at the ocean, and had a little champagne and cheese. I think I got credit for being romantic, but we had our four-year-old with us, so it wasn't really the most romantic experience I've ever had. But those two probably jump out of the pack.

James Ferrara: Certainly adventurous. You'd be surprised how many times helicopters figure into the answer to this question. We get a lot of helicopters onto the glaciers in Alaska and stuff, so something about helicopters is very memorable. I find them very memorable because I'm scared to death in them. They are the least aerodynamic vehicle possible. If something happens, you drop out of the sky like a rock. So that's why I find them memorable.

Ray Snisky: Absolutely. I think we all look to do something that we don't do regularly. That's why I think those excursions are so unique. I'm really glad, James, I didn't have the same thought process when I was with my wife.

James Ferrara: Well, I could tell you some stories. As many airplanes as I've been on, I've been on one helicopter in my life and I was petrified. Flying is second nature, but this was different.

Mike Putman: Clearly, we do not have a helicopter company sponsor. Just a couple more. Are you an aisle or window guy?

Ray Snisky: Aisle, one hundred percent. You need the spillover.

Mike Putman: Exactly. How about a carry-on or checked bag?

Ray Snisky: Checked bag when there's no other option available on the planet. Otherwise, everything's a carry-on.

James Ferrara: Good man. I'm gonna keep it zipped because I have three bags over in the corner.

The Reach and Brands of ALG Vacations

Mike Putman: James just flew in today and he's got quite a bit of luggage. He has an entourage that has to help him when he travels. Ray Snisky, can you just tell our listeners a little bit about ALG and what the brand stands for and all the different products and areas that you cover?

Ray Snisky: It's ALG Vacations and we have eight different vacation brands that all have different value propositions for the customer. Our largest focus is on the all-inclusive segment, so there is a heavy emphasis on Mexico and the Caribbean, but we are continuing to expand. We expanded much more into Europe and we've grown over two hundred percent in Europe in the last twelve months, which is fantastic. One of the outcomes from COVID is customers are a lot more daring than they were previously. They're looking for different experiences from their repeated run-of-the-mill vacations. For example, I just looked at a report about two months ago that showed we had five thousand room nights at the Riu in Dubai with no marketing or promotion. People are saying, "Look, I trust InteleTravel, I trust ALG Vacations, I trust Riu or another hotel partner." I don't mind going to a place that I'm not really familiar with because I feel like I'll be well taken care of. We're seeing business pop up in all parts of the world and we're adjusting.

Mike Putman: Beyond Europe and the Caribbean, are there other markets that your brands serve?

Ray Snisky: We are really everywhere around the world. We're real big drivers of business to Vegas. We're a preferred Disney company and drive business to those resorts as well as Universal Studios. In addition to our brands that we own, we also manage the vacation programs for United, so their entire route network is available. We work with probably over a hundred or two hundred different scheduled air carriers all around the world. So there are lots of options for customers.

The Role of Apple Leisure Group Behind the Scenes

James Ferrara: Ray Snisky, Apple Leisure Group Vacations is not a household name to consumers, and yet it is one of the largest leisure organizations in the world, maybe the largest. Why is it that our listeners and travelers are not so familiar with that name when you guys have such a profound place in the marketplace? Your brands—Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, Hyatt Inclusive Collection—why don't they know who Apple is?

Ray Snisky: I guess it's somewhat analogous to General Motors and all their different car brands, in that our forward-facing brands are the vacation companies. In addition to United Vacations and Southwest Vacations, we have Funjet Vacations, Apple Vacations, Travel Impressions, and Blue Sky Tours. All of those are bookable through InteleTravel and we have a preferred relationship with InteleTravel. We continually work on enhancing those brands to make it easier for InteleTravel to provide great experiences for the customers.

James Ferrara: You don't really sell directly to the public, right? You sell through partners like InteleTravel. Our primary focus is being the engine behind great travel advisors like yourselves. You're like the man behind the curtain. That's what I want our listeners to understand. This incredible reach and incredible expertise—we rely on it. As travel professionals, we rely on the expertise of your amazing teams, and you don't always get the credit. Tell us about the Hyatt relationship.

Integration with Hyatt Hotels

Ray Snisky: That's a great question. In the past, we have been a family-owned business. Two family-owned businesses merged together, the two largest tour operators in the United States, in 2018. We were owned by private equity for a few more years, and then our forever home was when Hyatt Hotels and Resorts acquired us in November of 2021. During that time period, it's really been a fantastic experience. If you were to look at the DNA—everything from purpose and values and focal points—it was almost as if the two companies were the same exact blueprint. It really has been amazing. Mark Hoplamazian, the CEO of Hyatt, came in with a mindset of respecting the business that we were doing and respecting our leadership. Sometimes when people buy a company, they think, "Well, I must be smarter than you because I had the money to acquire you." That's not always the case. Mark was very respectful. He wants to learn, which is why we've been so purposeful in integrating into Hyatt and making sure we don't jeopardize the DNA that had been in place. It was a springboard for Hyatt to be the leader in the all-inclusive space. Our sister company at the time, AMResorts, was one of the largest all-inclusive companies in the world, very strong with brands like Secrets, Dreams, Breathless, and Zoetry. We've really been able to leverage the best of both worlds. We get a lot of the infrastructure and the accelerant of Hyatt's security, cybersecurity, HR, and other business processes, but we keep our own DNA. They've really been an accelerator for us, bringing out the best we had to offer. That doesn't happen too often in acquisitions. Quite often somebody comes in and says, "Hey, I don't really know a lot about your business, but I want you to start doing things differently." We really haven't had that. From that standpoint, it's been an absolute home run.

Managing the End-to-End Traveler Journey

Mike Putman: Ray Snisky, as you've become more vertically integrated with the wholesale company, the hotel component, and the air component—we do about half a million charter seats from the U.S. to different points in Mexico and the Caribbean—what are the benefits to the end consumer from having one company that provides everything?

Ray Snisky: I think it really comes with a primary focus on the customer's end-to-end experience. We're not doing a bunch of handoffs. Our ability to really serve the customer and have good information on their needs and wants is vital. You can book someone with InteleTravel, they can book one of our vacation brands, and they can book one of our hotels. When they get to the destination, it's our company meeting them and greeting them. Amstar, our destination management company, transfers about forty thousand people a week, so it's quite the operation. It's the largest in Mexico and the Caribbean. That allows us a lot of ability to service the customer and have leverage and buying power for excursions. Many of the most experiential parts of travel are the things they do when they're there. What is the authentic experience they have, whether that be swimming with the dolphins or having a sunset cruise with their spouse? It's really important for all of us to make sure the customer sees us providing relevant choices and buying power to get them good deals. Our role is almost to be a sage advisor in the destination. If you're going to be here for seven days, here are the best things you should do while you're here. Here's a property that fits your needs. More times than not, customers are worried about making a mistake and booking the wrong hotel or not knowing the best things to do. The idea of "I'll just land and I'll figure it out" sometimes is limiting. The more we can get good information to the customer to really understand what appeals to them is vital for all of our success.

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Vacations

James Ferrara: That's a wonderful view of how vacationing has evolved. I have to ask you, where do you see it going? What's coming next in the vacation product or the vacation experience? What's on your planning schedule for the next couple of years?

Ray Snisky: I think there's that old phrase: stay close to people that are smarter than you. I'm spending a lot of time with some of our really bright people understanding artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and all these new tools. How do you take what the customer is looking for and put it in a consumable environment so that they can ensure they're getting the best of their trip? Sometimes it's even just bringing it to the basics. There's a reason why we have two ears and one mouth; we have to spend more time listening and understanding instead of just trying to sell a customer the most popular thing. I think where you secure yourself going into the future is providing the right matchup of products and services for that particular customer. Working through your organization, James, is vital for us to give you the tools and be able to do things much more quickly than in the past. We have an AI bot that we're rolling out. When your advisor is on the phone with our advisor asking questions, I don't have someone scrolling through help screens. They start typing in some of the information and all this stuff gets queued up. Providing that knowledge and the right answers as quickly as possible, building confidence with the customer, is a big focal point for us.

Tulum: A Rising Star in Mexico

Mike Putman: That is really important and certainly makes a big difference in the customer experience. Ray Snisky, are there any undiscovered destinations or any new destinations you see opening up in the coming year or two?

Ray Snisky: I think the amount of undiscovered destinations is getting smaller and smaller as years go by. But I'm excited about a relatively unknown destination, Tulum, south of Cancun. It is widely referred to as one of the more authentic Mexican experiences, with lots of great environments, day music, and unique shops. But it was a haul from the Cancun Airport. I'm thrilled that the new Tulum Airport is opening up in December. United, Delta, and American have all announced nonstop service that will launch in March. We've already got a footprint at that hotel, our Amstar business is there, and we'll have that as another option. You'll be able to tackle that growing Riviera Maya from the south or from the north in Cancun. I think that's going to open up a lot of experiences for people who thought, "Gosh, I'm not sure I wanted to drive an hour and a half or two hours from the airport to get to that place." We'll be able to cover the fort with new ways to get there from the hubs of those major carriers.

James Ferrara: Really glad to hear you mention Tulum and the new airport. I think it's really important. I was there earlier this year. There's a great Mayan archaeological site in Tulum to add to the experience. It's just naturally very beautiful.

Ray Snisky: When you look at that, the Cancun Airport is getting pretty saturated. With that being the single point of entry for all these fantastic resorts popping up, the quality of these resorts remaining authentic is what's impressed me most. It's got luxury plus authenticity. When you can marry those two up, it really creates some memorable experiences for folks.

Ray Snisky’s Tips for Finding Authenticity

James Ferrara: I agree. Great destination. Ray Snisky, when you travel personally, is there something you do that helps you get a real authentic sense of place?

Ray Snisky: Great question. I do this in cities in the US as well as international destinations. My insatiable search for authenticity is: I want to know where the locals go. I'll go to a restaurant and ask the waiters, "If you can't include your restaurant, where would you go to have a meal?" I did that in the Little Italy section of the Bronx. I grew up in the Bronx, and you would think I would know, but the issue is when I grew up there, I didn't have any money to go to fancy places. I found this place Roberto's in the Little Italy section of the Bronx. Now I bring thirty people to dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving every year. It's a new tradition for our family. The same thing happened in Rome. I was asking some waiters and they all talked about Ristorante Grano, this small place that only caters to locals. You're not staying in business in Rome if you're not fantastic. It's a really unassuming place, but it's just absolutely fantastic. I do that most places. It goes with excursions, too. I go to the concierge and get through that initial layer where they only want to sell what they make the most money on. Sometimes a little tip can help as well. I ask, "What if you had your family here, or your brother came for one day, what would you have him do?" Once you get to that first little layer, they start pouring out information. It's worked out really well for me.

Mike Putman: That's a great tip. Just one last question. Is there anything you do on an airplane to get through the airport quicker or to make your flight more enjoyable?

Ray Snisky: I make myself completely independent on a flight. I've got noise-canceling headphones and I've downloaded the latest apps to make sure I'm able to do that. In the hotel, I want to capture the best experience since time is limited. If I'm going to eat in the hotel restaurant, I want it to be their finest restaurant. Finest doesn't mean most expensive, but what's the one that everyone feels is so memorable? A little bit of planning the day I arrive sets the tone for the rest of my trip. Our biggest fear is that I'm going to be somewhere for five days and not do the really cool thing. You want to try and do some event planning, but when you get there and can talk to the locals, it always has extra value.

Experience Highlights from the Norwegian Viva

Mike Putman: Excellent. Really good point. Well, Ray Snisky, thanks so much for spending the time with us today. It was great to learn more about you personally and ALG Vacations. We really appreciate your time.

Ray Snisky: Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate the opportunity. Good to see you, my friend James.

James Ferrara: Yes, sir. I'll see you on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Ray Snisky certainly knows his stuff, doesn't he, Mike?

Mike Putman: Yeah, it was really a privilege to have him on our podcast. He's a very nice guy.

James Ferrara: One thing we want to remind all of you listeners is to stay tuned throughout the end of the podcast because today is the big day. We will be announcing the winner of the Virgin Voyages cruise for two. Stay tuned in case your name is called.

Mike Putman: That's right. It could be you. We'll reach out to the winner over the week and look forward to celebrating that great voyage with you. Speaking of cruises, James, you just came back from a cruise.

James Ferrara: I did. I was at the christening of a brand new cruise ship down in Miami, the Norwegian Viva. I have to say it was spectacular. The christening happened in Miami, so Norwegian decided to style a lot of it around the Latino culture and community. The ship is going to be homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico, doing the southern Caribbean from there. The new president of Norwegian Cruise Lines, David Herrera, is of Cuban background. The godfather of this ship is the pop star Luis Fonsi. A lot of people know "Despacito," that was a big hit of his. He did concerts on the ship after the christening, and we went on a short cruise to the Bahamas. There was also another young Latina pop star, a well-known singer from Puerto Rico. The whole thing had a Latin flair to it. It was a glittering event, lots of VIPs from the travel industry. We got to spend four days on the ship eating at all the restaurants. There must be thirty restaurants on board and all the incredible entertainment. The Broadway musical Beetlejuice is performed on board with all the sets. It's just like going to Broadway. There are all the crazy slides and the drop. You can probably guess I didn't do those. Every time I look at one of those drop water slides, I think of Augustus Gloop in the original Willy Wonka movie where he gets stuck in the tube. That would be me. But I do the go-kart racing. On the top of this ship, they have a two-deck go-kart race with these very powerful go-karts. You go out over the edge of the ship a little bit and you race around on the track. Really, really fun. This is the Prima class of ships which started with the Prima, launched last year, and now the Norwegian Viva. I must say, this is really like the best food at sea on Norwegian now. I stayed in the ship-within-a-ship concept on board, which is called the Haven. You have a private restaurant, a private pool, butlers, and concierges. It really is the way to go.

Mike Putman: That sounds really nice. I remember James called me while he was waiting to get on the ship and he was telling me about the Haven and all this. I said, "If you're a VIP, what are you doing waiting in line?"

James Ferrara: To be fair to Norwegian, I waited five minutes. They even gave me a private cabana on the private island, an air-conditioned cabana with beautiful food and a Champagne bar. Very splashy. They've done a great job. Kudos to Norwegian. This is an important new ship. If you want to cruise the Caribbean and have a premium experience, I would certainly look into the Norwegian Viva.

How to Use Price Alerts for Airfare Savings

Mike Putman: We're traveling on to Cancun together later in the week. But you've been following some travel industry news, I understand?

James Ferrara: Quite a bit. There was something that really came onto my radar screen this week. This is a strategy that was new to me and something that I tried over the last couple of weeks. For your flights, if you want to make a change, you can do so with a lot of the domestic carriers in their apps. The apps make it very easy if you don't buy that lowest bucket fare. You don't have to buy a premium fare, but just not what American calls basic economy. That gives you the ability to make some changes. Here is the strategy: once you make your booking, you go on to Google Flights and you do a search. You can narrow down your search for those exact same flights. Find those same flights and then you set up a price alert. Google will monitor those flights for you and anytime the price goes down, they will send you an email or a text. Then you can go back on the American app, the Delta app, or the United app and say you want to change your flight. You can change your flight to the same flights and take advantage of that savings. As an example, I had a flight going to Cancun and I actually wanted to make a change because I wanted to fly out a day earlier. My price went down, then I put an alert out there and saw that the prices went down again. I went back and the price had gone down a second time. Now you don't have these change fees and you don't have to call the airlines; you can just do all this in an automated fashion. It automatically reissues your ticket and then you just get a credit voucher that you can use towards future travel. Really good tip.

James Ferrara: I haven't tried it, but I certainly could. I know that I use travel agents to book my air and they do some of that, but it's a lot of work and they can't be watching all the time. Recently on a flight to Spain, I actually saved a thousand dollars off of business class air by canceling and rebooking it because my professional travel advisor was watching it. But certainly, I could set up some Google Alerts and do it myself. I like to self-search because I like to be able to do it at one o'clock in the morning. I like the automation.

Industry Updates: Canceled Cruises and Record TSA Numbers

Mike Putman: It does work. James, in one of our earlier episodes, you were enamored by the news of a three-year cruise that was being offered. We talked about it a little bit, but there's been an update, hasn't there?

James Ferrara: Yeah, it's been an unfortunate update. Life at Sea Cruises, which had been promoting this cruise for quite some time, announced about two weeks before their departure that there was going to be a delay of a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks rolled by and then three days before the departure in Istanbul, they said the cruise has been canceled. You have all of these folks who had sold their homes and made arrangements to be away for three years. Many of them were actually in Istanbul waiting for the ship to leave, and they received notification that there was an indefinite delay due to the company not being able to acquire the rights to that particular ship. It's a really unfortunate thing. You don't hear about things like this happening very often in our industry. Life at Sea Cruises did intervene and they flew people back and made arrangements for hotel accommodations at their expense. They were offering refunds, but I think this was just a case of very poor planning and execution. They are saying that they are going to come back with another offering next quarter. I don't think I would be one of those first people to go on a Life at Sea cruise if it were me. But it's a neat idea. There are several other companies that are doing it, including residency programs where you actually purchase and own a piece of the ship. One other thing I wanted to share with our listeners before we announce our winner is that prior to Thanksgiving, we had a discussion about large numbers of travelers. The TSA just came out and said that the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the highest number of travelers that have ever gone through the TSA since they've been keeping records.

Mike Putman: The Sunday after Thanksgiving normally is the busiest travel day of the year, but this has broken all previous records. If anyone's out there still talking about comparisons to 2019, cut it out already. It's over. That conversation is over. We've wiped every record.

Announcing the Virgin Voyages Prize Winner

James Ferrara: Absolutely. And speaking of what's coming, we've got a giveaway. Someone out there is going to be very excited. I was a little overwhelmed to hear how many entries we had. We had thirty-eight thousand entries in our Virgin Voyages cruise for two giveaway.

Mike Putman: It was a great turnout. We just learned from our executive producer Nathaniel—who does a great job, by the way—that everything is ready. He takes care of all the details. Before we give this away, I do want to say a heartfelt thanks to our close partners at Virgin Voyages for helping us donate this trip. What a tremendous product. I just had some friends come back last month and they said this was the best trip they've ever taken in their lives.

James Ferrara: Our travelers are very happy on Virgin Voyages. They have a huge repeat business percentage because it's such a great experience. We're going to ask the person who wins if they'll come back after their cruise and spend a few minutes with us and share their experience.

Mike Putman: Okay, drum roll please. The grand winner of the Virgin Voyages giveaway is Mr. Robert Gibson. Hopefully you're listening, Robert, and otherwise we'll be sending you a notification via email.

James Ferrara: Oh, I thought you were gonna say otherwise we're gonna give it to someone else! But you have won a beautiful seven-day cruise for two. The cruise has to take place between now and the end of June. It's good for any seven-day cruise and it's for a balcony cabin. It's not like an inside L Tow cabin. Congratulations! Our producer Nathaniel will be in touch.

Mike Putman: If we are unable to reach Robert or he's unable to go, then we might be back here next episode giving it away again. It's a season of thanks. We've just passed Thanksgiving, so we're very thankful for you, all of our listeners.

Conclusion

James Ferrara: Once we cross over into the beginning of January, we'll have something else to give away. Please share No Tourists Allowed with your friends and family. Have them download the podcast. The more listeners we have, the more prizes we have.

Mike Putman: Thanks again for listening. I hope you have a wonderful week and we look forward to speaking to you again next week.

James Ferrara: Mike and I are on our way to Cancun and maybe we'll talk to you from there.

Mike Putman: Absolutely. Thanks for being with us, everyone. Bye-bye.

James Ferrara: Thank you for listening to another episode of No Tourists Allowed. We'll see you next week. No Tourists Allowed is produced by Podcast Studio X.