Travel Trends with Dan Christian
#1 B2B Travel Podcast. If you are looking to stay ahead in the travel industry, this new podcast hits all the highlights! The Travel Trends Podcast is where industry leaders converge to share & shape the future. Whether you're an emerging entrepreneur, a seasoned industry executive, or a dedicated travel professional, you’ll be able to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Uncover valuable insights, innovative strategies, and meaningful connections that will elevate your travel business or career to new heights.
Travel Trends with Dan Christian
Special Hospitality Series: Elevating Service Excellence - The Future of Learning & Development in Luxury Hospitality with Megan Torrance, SVP, Forbes Travel Guide
In episode 4 of our 10-part Special Hospitality Series in collaboration with Forbes Travel Guide, we continue our "Leaders Behind the Stars" spotlight with Megan Torrance, Senior Vice President for Learning and Development at Forbes Travel Guide, as she takes us behind the scenes to explore how the world’s most prestigious hotels are adapting to meet these new demands.
Forbes Travel Guide’s approach goes beyond checklists—it's about creating meaningful, emotional connections with guests. With 40 expert trainers worldwide, their mission is to elevate service through personalized coaching rather than rigid procedures.
Through Forbes Travel Guide’s dynamic learning platform, hospitality professionals gain access to 60 years of industry expertise, blending digital learning, in-person training, and leadership development to foster a culture of service excellence.
"We’re here to inspire people to be a better version of themselves tomorrow than they are today," Megan explains.
If you're curious about how luxury hotels are leading the way in service innovation, this conversation offers a wealth of inspiration.
Season 5 Launched Jan 15th. New Episodes Every Weds! Check out our first 4 Seasons.
https://www.traveltrendspodcast.com/
Now we're seeing more and more of that single traveler. You know we listened to a statistic last year at this event. That said, I thought it was particularly funny that women were choosing not to get married and instead just taking these single journeys on their own. But the interesting part of it is that when they're doing that, they're still looking for community. So that difference in having the understanding of just because they're alone doesn't mean they don't want community. And community involvement or community events aren't really something that has been huge in hotels. It does exist. But how do you create community and what are different ways? What's that community look like? How much of it is too much? How much is not enough? So I think we'll continue to see more bringing in and how do we make sure everyone feels welcome, everyone feels invited? It will be really interesting to watch how we do a better job of that in the hotel space.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to our special hospitality series. In partnership with our friends at Forbes Travel Guide, we're in season two of our series entitled the Leaders Behind the Stars and, as you've heard, in our first three episodes we spoke to three extraordinary leaders in luxury hospitality, starting with Malcolm Hendry at the Red Carnation Hotel in London, and then we spoke to Sarah McIntosh from the Mayborn Beverly Hills, and then last week we spoke to Pradeep Raman, who has launched the very first Carinthia Hotel in New York City. We've had some great feedback from those first three episodes, since we have launched clips and highlights on all of our social channels, which you can check out at Travel Trends Podcast, on LinkedIn, on Instagram and YouTube, and then our friends at Forbes Travel Guide are posting as well on both Instagram and LinkedIn at Forbes Travel Guide are posting as well on both Instagram and LinkedIn at Forbes Travel Guide, and you'll be able to see clips and highlights from today's episode as well, which, as we go into episode four, what I thought we could do is bring one of the Forbes Travel Guide team into the conversation, and today we're going to speak to the Senior Vice President for Learning and Development, megan Torrance. Now Megan's got a really fascinating background, because she worked in hospitality for many years before she joined Forbes Travel Guide. She actually worked for the Four Seasons Hotel, so she certainly knows about the art of luxury hospitality. She also worked at the Aubergine Resorts and then she joined Forbes Travel Guide about 10 years ago and for the last four years she has been leading the learning and development side of the business.
Speaker 2:Now I thought I'd just add some important context here, since most of you have come to understand, or may already know, that Forbes Travel Guide as a brand is really comprised of their standards, their ratings, the editorial work and their travel industry outreach. That's really who Forbes Travel Guide is, but they have a learning and development arm, which is referred to as the Academy. It's not part of Forbes Travel Guide, but essentially the Academy works with hotels around the world and offers the opportunity for them, whether it be remote or on-site, to be able to improve their customer service experience. And this is why I wanted to bring Megan into the conversation, since you've had a great opportunity to meet three hotel GMs and understand their role and the journey they've been on to either achieve their five-star ranking or are on their journey to do just that.
Speaker 2:But Forbes Travel Guide and their official star ratings. They don't permit anyone else to use or train the academy, so it's an exclusive opportunity to work with this part of the organization. So I thought today let's bring Megan into the conversation and be able to showcase this side of the business and just really understanding all the learning and development component that makes Forbes Travel Guide so special. So, on that note, let me bring in Megan to the conversation. Thanks so much for joining us, megan. It's great to have you on Travel Trends and our special hospitality series.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and thank you for having me. It's really a pleasure to be here and you know, I think you make a great point that it's so much to do with the rating system but honestly, it's so much to do with all of it, you know, and there's so many times where we're not even training to that five star. We're just training and trying to inspire people to be a little bit better version of themselves tomorrow than they are today, and showing them the ways and delivering that with a passion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, tell us a bit about your specific role, because I think a lot of people are familiar with Forbes Travel Guide and the five-star ratings, but tell us about your role as the SVP of learning and development. What does that encompass and what is your area of focus?
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. My area of focus is anything learning, so it's really exciting to see how the position has changed and evolved over the years. Currently, we have a team of about 40 trainers who are positioned all over the globe. Yeah, it's exciting. When I started, I think I was number seven and then we went down to three during COVID, so it's been fun to kind of watch the team grow and evolve. For sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're working with teams all over the world in the rated market, but also non-rated market of just service development and service excellence. And the other interesting part that's in our area is that we also do a lot of digital and really building our digital products as well. So I think everyone's heard of the Service Energizers, but they're a really great tool to help leaders do what we do and help leaders train and develop their team.
Speaker 2:Well, let's actually speak to that, because I think many of our listeners may not be, and I think one of the things that's unique about your organization is the fact that you do have a person like yourself, a senior executive, that is responsible for this area.
Speaker 2:Many organizations, of course, have an HR function or a chief people officer and oftentimes learning and development and coaching falls under kind of HR, but this is not the case here, because this is, you mentioned, like having 40 trainers around the world. So tell us a little bit about the training system, I guess, and what makes it unique, and explain some of that terminology you just mentioned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, and you know what really makes our training in general unique is we focus more on the emotional connection than anything. And you know, when we train at hotels and when I was in hotels and I was training my team in operations I tended to focus on the SOPs and I had to focus on the compliance training and the foundational orientation style training, the two-week training and onboarding period. But when we come in at Forbes Travel Guide not that we don't respect those things, we absolutely respect those things but we have the ability to train on just 100% the guest experience and how to elevate the guest experience and how to really bring that outside voice in that has traveled all over the world and seen so many different ways and best practices and share those with the teams.
Speaker 2:And then, being here at the event like this, tell us a little bit about how you play a role in the summit itself and the experience we're having here in Monaco.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I'm lucky to be here with a lot of the members of my team, and we are hosting various discovery sessions that help the audience understand some of the different learning pathways and journeys. For example, a big thing that we believe in and that we really think is so valuable is that we believe that training should be multi-part. So a lot of times people think of our training as just the in-person training, but really we've developed an ecosystem that we're here to spread the word about, and that ecosystem involves first starting with a digital platform of learning to just understand the concepts of luxury hospitality, understand what they mean, understand the terminology, and then we move into the in-person training in a perfect world, because what that does is it allows us to pick up from where we left off on the digital platform and it allows that such valuable in-person time to be, instead of going over terminology, to really be focusing on what are those guest behaviors that are making these foundational things difficult to achieve.
Speaker 1:So in the guest behavior, it's one thing, for example, to say be genuine and authentic with your guests and to have a great friendly conversation with that at check-in, but when we're in person, if the digital learning happens first, then in person, what we can do is we can really talk about. We can talk about what happens when the guest is on their cell phone. So we're still supposed to be genuine and authentic with them, but it's applied different because the guest behavior has changed. And then the final piece of that ecosystem is that we want to leave the leaders with a tool at the end of the training that can give them the opportunity to practice with their team and keep that message alive, which is where those service energizers come in.
Speaker 2:Got it. I like the term service energizers. I also really like the fact that, as I got to learn more about Forbes Travel Guide last year in Las Vegas and speak to many of the amazing GMs that are here at the conference and obviously there's many new GMs here, given this is much more of an international conference this year One of the things that they had highlighted to me was just how important the learning how the ratings and standard systems work so they can improve the guest experience at their hotel. So it's one thing to get the certification, which is obviously great for business, but actually the entire journey to get there is just as important because it enables them to lift their standards, which is going to increase repeat guests and even spending with the revenue of each of the guests, and so there's so many benefits of just elevating the guest experience based on how Forbes approaches this.
Speaker 2:But they take a very you guys. As I've come to understand it from your team, and certainly from Herman, and who's the CEO, of course and he mentioned this as introduction is you have to separate church and state between the ratings and the partnerships, because nobody can actually know when someone is actually going to visit their property. So, and although they can have an understanding of what they're going to be looking at, they really don't have any control over that. There's no, it's editorial control is paramount for you guys to be able to have trust and confidence in the rating system, so tell us a little bit about how that plays into your development and training programs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know I think it goes back to a little bit to what I was saying earlier is that in training, yes, the rating is the end goal for a lot of properties and, believe me, if it's your goal, it's our goal, we will help you get there. We will develop that path with you. But it's also we understand that it is in fact a journey. So you know, if your goal, if you're just opening your hotel and your goal is five-star, we're going to help you build that roadmap to get there. So there is separation between that, because we're not going to come in and promise that in two days you're going to be five-star.
Speaker 1:Anyone who has a five-star hotel knows that it's a process and it's about building a culture of service. And that culture of service comes with the right leadership, the right vision and really the dedication and time put into that. So we're working with the teams. Yes, well, that's the end result and the end goal that most of them hope for when we're training day to day. It's helping them take baby steps and really work on that roadmap of improvement. And we can't get to A or we can't get to B until we get to A, or whatever that saying is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that makes total sense and I get it. I guess that's the importance of this aspect of your role and the organization, but tell us a little bit about the plans for this year and how your team and role is evolving. I mean obviously going down to three and up to 40. But one of the things that I certainly see here is the dramatic global expansion of Forbes Travel Guide and especially international expansion global expansion of Forbes Travel Guide and especially international expansion. So what does that look like for you and your team as you continue to bring on more people into this business and prepare for an even bigger 2026?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, 2024 was huge, 2025 is going to be bigger and 2026 is going to be nothing short of robust. And really what we're doing and how that's changing is we've learned after COVID, during COVID, and even knew before COVID, that service excellence is everywhere, it's not just in the rated world. So Forbes Travel Guide, the learning and development team, is kind of breaking off into two separate divisions or entities. We have Atelier CX, which launched end of last year, which is now the partner that's working with anyone outside of the hotel world or rated world to really develop their roadmap for service and their standards that they want for their business. And then the second division would be the academy, and the academy is the trainers, and so while they will continue to train the Forbes Travel Guide star rated properties, the academy will also grow into service excellence training, no matter your journey, no matter your business, to really help support service excellence in general. As we heard from a lot of speakers today, that's the heart of any great organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and for those of you listening to this, I mean, megan's episode is a standalone with the behind the stars the leaders behind the stars theme, and so she is certainly a key person. Most of the people you have otherwise heard from on this series she's the only one that's actually Forbes travel guide that will be part of the standalone series, and we also thought that would actually be a great idea because of her background and expertise and her area of focus. But one of the things that she just mentioned is Atelier CX, and then there's obviously Bond Lab.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so both of those, actually, and the individuals behind them, will be part of our highlight episode. So I'm just going to encourage everyone to make sure that you're registered, subscribed, and that you stay tuned for those episodes, because both of those are actually massive initiatives unto themselves that have a huge opportunity to grow this business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely the idea of doing luxury collaborations. It's like there's no shortage of opportunities there. But back to you and your role. Tell us. The thing I'm really keen to ask you about, megan, is some of the trends that you're seeing in this space, because clearly you have a unique view and perspective on that. So why don't you tell us some of the trends that you're seeing from service excellence and changing customer expectations, because I'm sure your training can't stay static. You're responding to customer demands and needs and they're changing wellness. Obviously, that's a huge focus here with the wellness studio. So, yeah, tell us some of the trends that you're paying attention to.
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's two areas of trends that are worth talking about. I think, obviously, trends in the industry and then also trends in how training is evolving. So for the first part, for trends in the industry, wellness is huge. So we're seeing a lot of talk about longevity and what longevity looks like and how longevity will change the traveler demographic and it's interesting, living in Southern California, you can really see the med spa clinics really focusing on all the biohacking and everything and I see those worlds emerging with luxury spas and I know it's very scary but it's already really happening and so how that continues to change the perception of what luxury is and is going to really be huge. Another trend is wellness is low ABV, which is something that in my day and age we didn't even talk about low ABV cocktails.
Speaker 2:Just explain that for our listeners that aren't familiar with the terminology, just to bring everyone on the journey.
Speaker 1:Just low alcohol, so it's not as pungent of cocktails, but that's really a trend. I mean, I'm part-time in Napa Valley learning that wine sales are down. Consumers aren't drinking the same way. So that's all part of this wellness initiative and how hotels have to quickly adapt to what our offerings. It's not the traditional, old-fashioned, always staple that was on the menu.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and there's definitely a big trend in non-alcoholic beverages and mocktails and just a general focus on health and wellness.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:One of the sessions that I had the privilege to attend was your partners at PWC did a great trend session on luxury and what they actually highlighted was the rise of GLP-1.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course.
Speaker 2:It's like 8% of the US population is now on one form or another of that drug and, just with the dramatic weight loss that many people are experiencing, it's changing their perception of their body image, and they're taking vacations and they're switching to more wellness holidays and moving away, for example, from salty and sweet foods to more nutrient dense options, and so these are the things that I'm like. This is why we come to the Forbes Travel Guide event in Monaco to listen to these experts and focus on the trends, which is why I was so keen to ask you. But yeah, please continue with some of the other highlights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and another trend we're seeing or will continue to see, I think, more and more is the rise of the single traveler. It's not as taboo like it used to be. It never was. For me I loved it, but for others I don't know. But now we're seeing more and more of that single traveler.
Speaker 1:You know we listened to a statistic last year at this event. That said, I thought it was particularly funny that women were choosing not to get married and instead just taking these single journeys on their own. But the interesting part of it is that when they're doing that, they're still looking for community. So that difference in having the understanding of just because they're alone doesn't mean they don't want community. And community involvement or community events aren't really something that has been huge in hotels. It does exist. But how do you create community and what are different ways? What's that community look like? How much of it is too much, how much is not enough? So I think we'll continue to see more bringing in and how do we make sure everyone feels welcome, everyone feels invited Will be really interesting to watch how we do a better job of that in the hotel space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. That was actually just to underscore your point there. They also highlighted the dramatic rise in solo travelers in the last five years, and specifically female solo travelers, and one of the stats that wasn't part of their slides but they had referenced I had jotted it down is that 47% of women solo travelers are either divorced or widowed. Either divorced or widowed and they were highlighting that not in a way to because, when I mentioned to a colleague earlier, like that's sad, it's like, well, in certain situations certainly it might be, but in other situations they now have the freedom to be able to travel and travel independently. And so someone made the joke that maybe they're now on Ozembic and they're single and they're going to have the best holidays of their entire life.
Speaker 2:So a different way to look at it, but nevertheless there's this dramatic rise in solo female traveler and a focus on wellness, so I've got to assume that that is something you need to be mindful of, to build into training programs to make sure that the hoteliers are prepared for this trend and ready to serve those guests in ways that are different than their existing clientele.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's where Forbes Travel Guide is really fortunate, because our trainers' main job sounds really glamorous they travel the world in all these best hotels, and so what we can bring is really that collection of best practices and that collection of you know. This is what's happening out there, because I know again when I worked in operations I could never get a day off, so I was working around the clock and we didn't have the luxury of the vacation that you think. You work in hospitality. You must have seen all the best hotels. I didn't do that until I started working here, and so to be able to share those best practices and keep that moving forward is really the fun part of our job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, just to highlight how organizations that are listening to this because clearly we've got a large global audience and we're very proud to have this partnership with Forbes Travel Guide, where we have this hospitality series of travel trends and Forbes Travel Guide have partnered together to create this hospitality special series, and one of the reasons that I wanted to not only have you on the podcast and to be here together at the event is to help many other organizations and individuals understand how they can actually work with Forbes Travel Guide, since you're growing so dramatically. So what would be some of the, I guess, tips, suggestions from your perspective about how organizations should plan to work with you or partner with you?
Speaker 1:Well, a couple of different things I can share all day with how you can work with us, but I think that what's important to know is, as you get ready to work with us, some things that are important to keep in mind is that it is a journey. So you know, one training, two trainings I have the best trainers in the world on my team, with no question but one training or two training with them is not going to help you get to your end result that you're looking for. It is a journey. So it's a process of you know, really investing in the leadership to want to move the needle and then, if you have the team that wants to move the needle, we will absolutely help you move it. So I think that's a big part of it.
Speaker 1:I also think that you know you want to break up the journey into that roadmap and you want to celebrate the little successes along the way. So you can't look at I don't know if you can't look at oh, we only score. If you were sorry if you were scoring 75, 80% on your reports and all of a sudden you bump to 90, you can't look at that as failure. You know you have to look at that as like we're moving in the right direction, and change takes time and getting people on board with a new direction and a new culture of service or enhanced culture of service, I should say is something that is a multi-year journey and you have to be dedicated to that journey and, as a GM, be leading that vision of this is what we're doing and this is the path we're taking. We're going to celebrate all of our wins along the way, but then, if you want to hear about how to work with us directly, I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's important too, because the reason I think it is so important is just because I've seen so many companies that have been transformed and I've spoken to them.
Speaker 2:And many people will have heard this Malcolm Hendry, who's my great friend that runs- Hotel 41 in London, which is one of the top ranked hotels, like number one on TripAdvisor, and he also runs the Rubens, yes, and now he runs a hotel in Scotland as well, and so he's had incredible success. But if you trace it back to some of the origins with Malcolm, he convinced Jonathan Raggett, his boss, that he needed to be Forbes Travel Guide rated.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and he went on a journey to reach that status and this is the conference that he comes to every year. It's his one major international conference he attends. He loves forbes travel guide because it's really helped him build the largest uh property collection within the group yeah, and he's like so.
Speaker 2:So this is where, like, I've seen the, the real benefit. So I guess, when I'm asking you for these suggestions, I just wanted to highlight that to our listeners, that it like it's coming from a really good place, where it's not because we've just partnered with Forbes Travel Guide, it's because I know it'll make a meaningful difference to their business. So, yeah, please by all means share a few more details with how people can work and collaborate with you.
Speaker 1:Of course, I think the best way to get ahold of us is through our LinkedIn. We have Forbes Travel Guide LinkedIn, but we also have Forbes Travel Guide Learning and Development, and that's a really great tool, regardless of working with us or not, because it will share some of those best practices and tips around the world, so you'll always see updates there. We've also you'll continue to hear more about Atelier CX, but they have launched a website last year that starts to define their business and then, coming soon, we'll have a website for Forbes Travel Guide called the Academy, which will have all of our learning options and kind of help to highlight that ecosystem of learning that we pride ourselves on, as well as the journey and what to expect from the journey and you know, what are some realistic roadmaps for you to take along the way.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fantastic. Well, megan, I definitely want to put more of a focus on learning as part of our podcast, so we definitely need to find time to regroup again. We will After this event and, obviously, as we continue our partnership. But I just wanted to say thank you to you, thank you to the team. It's a real honor to be here at Forbes Travel Guide again in Monaco. I'm excited to hear where it's going to be announced for next year.
Speaker 2:I know you've got some ideas, but I was talking to Stuart and obviously nothing can be revealed. He didn't tell me anything other than you're still in the final stages of making a decision. But I'm sure when people are listening to this, they can go and find out more information about attending next year. So, just given that you are the key Forbes Travel Guide representative on the hospitality series, would you mind just sharing with us, as we wrap up, how they can find out more information about Forbes Travel Guide to be a part of the summit in future? Because it is membership only and kind of by invitation, so it is a very exclusive event to be a part of.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course, and of course all of our members will get regular communication about when. We'll probably have some teasers out coming soon, but also the summit has its own website soon. But also the summit has its own website. So if you'd like to work with us from a travel agent or a travel advisor perspective or from a vendor perspective, the summit's website would be the great place to go to get all that information. And we'll say destination coming soon, I think just a couple weeks and you'll find out.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll make sure that it's in the notes for those of you who are listening to this, but Megan, it's gonna be tough to beat Monaco. Yeah, no kidding, exactly, I think we'd all gladly just come back for a Monaco part two, but exactly, I'm sure you guys will surprise us again. But yes, thank you, Megan. It's a real pleasure to meet you and get this time together. Thanks for the partnership and thanks for making time for this discussion.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely Dan it was an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2:And we'll talk soon. All right, thank you conversation, and I think it gave really important context to the next series of interviews we're going to be covering, since you get a better background of why we all came together for the summit in Monaco, this extraordinary event and the people that we're going to be continuing conversations with, not only hotel GMs, but we're actually going to be speaking to suppliers that are part of the luxury network, and also journalists and other partners. So there's going to be some really fascinating conversations to follow. So make sure you are subscribed on the streaming platform of your choice to be alerted when new episodes go live every Thursday for the next six weeks. And then, don't forget, we post clips and highlights on our social channels, which are LinkedIn, youtube and Instagram at Travel Trends Podcast, and our friends at Forbes Travel Guide are kindly posting as well on LinkedIn and Instagram at Forbes Travel Guide, so be sure to check those out, and otherwise, we'll look forward to having you join us next week on episode five of our special hospitality series. Until then, safe travels.
