Custom Travel To France

As I sit here in the Boston Logan airport at 7 in the morning, I am trying to grasp the amazing 2 days it has been for BellaTerra.

I was attending the French Affairs conference in Cambridge, MA, organized by Maison de la France which, for those who don’t know, is the company ran by the French Minister of Tourism in charge of promoting France as a desination worldwide, kind of like an humongous tourist office. (see their website)

The conference’s goal was to enable American Tour Operators and French incoming services to meet and do business. A big gala dinner was planned as well as an award ceremony, rewarding tour operators for their diverse skills and accomplishments.

All the big ones were there: Air France Holidays, Tauck tours, Trafalgar, Travel Impressions, and many, many more. A total of about 400 were represented, and me, proudly representing BellaTerra Travel, which let’s face it didn’t ring that much of a bell to a lot of people. Maybe you can see what I am getting at by now, but imagine my surprise when the speaker announced the 4 nominees of the Best Website Award and pronounced the name of my beloved little company amongst 3 giant ones!

Ok, you had to be there to get the feeling. But seeing BellaTerra Travel written on a giant screen in front of hundreds of formally dressed competitors was the most amazing feeling of accomplishment, and not to mention astonishment. By the time they announced the winner, Air France Holidays, I had already been shipped on a one-way ticket to cloud 9 and no way that not getting the prize was going to get me down from up there. I was so proud that our baby (yes, still talking about BT) along with 3 years of really hard work had been recognized by such a prestigious organization as Maison de la France.

It was an awesome evening. I felt asleep that night with a big smile on my face and my heart filled with pride, not knowing that the next day was going to be a continuation of all that good stuff…

The second day of the conference started with an interesting discussion group about demographics analysis and travel behavior of the baby boomers. That was followed by a nice lunch and a trade show allowing us to talk one on one with the French Providers.

I later checked my emails, which is when I was in for another big surprise: ModernAgent, a daily newsletter publication distributed to travel agents around the country had published an article about us, announcing the release of our Alpine Winter Ski Package! That was huge news, as not only this is a widely read publication, but it was also our first exposure in the press! I was overjoyed.

The wonderfulness kept pouring in, as I later received within an hour 2 requests of travel to France, one for a family of 9, and the second for a group of 20.

These 2 days have really been fantastic. The whole team is really proud, and wants to mainly thank Laurent (nicknamed Wawa for the easiness of the pronunciation) who created our wonderful website that retained the attention of the people at Maison de la France.

Thank you Wawa! You’re the best geek ever!