If CEO Ray Snisky had his way, ALG Vacations would be synonymous with kindness. The executive would like the concept of kindness to permeate the organization and its six major brands: Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, Southwest Vacations, Blue Sky Tours and United Vacations.
Three Pillars of Kindness
Working with Jacqueline Marks, global head of trade brands, and their teams, Snisky has created three pillars of kindness for the company: kindness to ourselves (professional development, wellness, self-care); kindness to others (paying it forward and giving back to the people and places who need it most); and kindness in travel (passion and respect for destinations, different cultures and our colleagues in travel).
At last year’s Kindness Conference, attendees raised more than $13,000 for El Delirio, a rural Maya village in the Riviera Maya. (Source: Apple Leisure Group)
Luxe Vacations by ALG Vacations
While kindness is an umbrella concept for everything it does, ALG Vacations is also moving forward on the product front with the introduction of Luxe by ALG Vacations, an enhanced holiday option within each of the six vacation brands, which include Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, Travel Impressions, Southwest Vacations, Blue Sky Tours Hawaii and United Vacations.
A bespoke list of 450 luxury hotels is the starting point for Luxe. They have all been either awarded AAA Five Diamond or Leading Hotels of the Worlds status, are consortia-preferred or all of the above. Many have committed to an amenities program that may offer guests a bottle of wine, free breakfast or other options.
A Luxe package might also include premium air seating, private ground transportation, concierge services and more. Clients can choose enriched services that are ordinarily out of the box and much more experientially focused than in the past.
“This is near and dear to me professionally,” said Snisky. What precipitated a formal program was an incident where he was traveling with his family in Africa and saw a little girl with a baby on her arm scraping a metal gas can across a puddle to get water.
Caring for People
“I realized that I could do so much more with my position and as a human being,” Snisky said. Apple Leisure Group’s acquisition by Hyatt in 2021 also aligned with his vision because that company’s credo is “caring for people so they can be their best.”
“I decided I wanted us to be the kindest company in travel,” Snisky said. “I want people to think about if their grandmother were at the front desk, would they do anything differently? Would they go out of their way to help if it were not somebody they knew?”
Give-Back Programs
ALGV began incorporating give-back programs in every advisor incentive trip, where they visit a charity, school or community to paint, bring supplies, help organize an ongoing initiative or otherwise contribute. “What might seem like a small effort might change someone’s day in seconds,” Snisky said.
In 2023, the initiative took a big on-the-ground step with the first Kindness Conference in Cancun when 40 advisors under 40 years old met to attend seminars and participate in give-back activities.
This year, a Kindness Connection Conference for advisors in the business for more than 20 years was added – with both events held sequentially at Secret Tides Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with one day’s overlap.
The 2024 Kindness Conference took place at the all-inclusive Secrets Tides Punta Cana (Source: Apple Leisure Group)
Creating Kindness Cards
In addition, ALGV has created kindness cards, which are available physically and digitally and can be given to an employee or colleague as an expression of thanks or support. There are templates available (“You make a difference,” “You’re a rock star,” etc.) or a personal note can be written on them. “Every time I get one of these cards, I feel happy about it,” Snisky said. “We share them at conferences, and they show that a little bit of eff ort goes a long way.”
On a day-to-day basis, kindness might involve a sales transaction but often it comes into play in a service situation. “There are certain things we can do above and beyond to make a situation better,” Snisky said. “We are not bound by policy and our people are empowered to do what they think is right.”
While generating sales is not the reason behind the Kindness Movement, the philosophy can be great for business “because it’s what you do to solve a problem that makes the biggest impression,” he said.
Focus on Travel Advisors
“Empathy plus action equals care,” Snisky said. This entire effort is focused on travel advisors because they are often in a position to show kindness when, for instance, there are multiple cancellations on a flight or when there is a natural disaster. “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said.
Looking ahead, “we will continue to challenge ourselves and find new ways to add to this movement and grow it,” he said.
During corporate planning for 2023, the company discussed how to take a mantra that had been embraced internally and transform it into a more foundational movement involving the travel advisor community.
In 2023, that took the form of more structure and more communication. Advisors needed to understand that this was not a marketing campaign or a way to drive business “but was us saying this is who we are and hopefully you will embrace it,” Marks said.
How It All Started
The movement began with dedicated webinars, enabling advisors to learn what it’s like to be part of the Kindness Movement. The first Kindness Conference, said Marks, was for younger advisors because the company wanted to be able to impact a new generation of travel sellers.
Travel advisors join ALGV staff in delivering supplies to local Maya families. (Source: Apple Leisure Group)
Participants were nominated by peers or could nominate themselves. This year, over 400 nominations were made for 40 spots for each event, Marks said.
Those nominating statements revealed how applicants lived their lives and why the get-together might mean something to them. “We read through every application and realized we were not in a position to choose, so we allowed fate to decide and used a random name generator,” she said.
ALGV’s only intervention in advisor selection for the events was to guarantee geographical distribution by choosing equally from potential participants in the four regions of the country. What attendees experienced were workshops, a keynote speaker, several giveback activities and time with Snisky and Marks to discuss the Kindness Movement.
“What we feel is most important is the opportunity to bond, network, share best practices and create their own community,” Marks said.
Forging Strong Ties
The 40 attendees from 2023 have continued networking with one another and have a WhatsApp chat group. A post-conference profile of participants revealed that the attendees were diverse ethnically, by gender and generally from different backgrounds. “They were able to learn from others who were not like them,” Marks said.
And the after-effects of the events “are not your typical ROI,” she said. The return “is in the impact on the lives of people.” One example was an advisor who later took his entire office on a give-back trip.
Another said they had invested in their own health and wellness so they could help others. “We are so inspired about how they are choosing to be collaborative and changing the way they work,” Marks said.
“There are so many examples showing that kindness is contagious,” she added. “If we live what we say we are, we will have a phenomenal relationship with travel advisors. You can have a lot of smart people but it’s culture that makes people want to work with a company.”
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