TravelAge west magazine announced the 2010 Trendsetter awards as the feature article on the cover of the June 21, 2010 Issue. Among those received its top industry honors of TrendSetter, PRIDE Travel's S. Nathan DePetris received the winning award in the category of travel agent SuperStar. The award marks the second category out of four that PRIDE Travel was honored for at this year's gala ceremony; Marc R. Kassouf, the company's co-owner and CEO, also received the runner-up award in the Best Community Service Effort category.
The TrendSetter award for travel agent SuperStar was conferred at the black tie annual TravelAge West WAVE awards ceremony held June 10th at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills. The travel industry's top executives, experts, and figures were in attendance recognizing the best of the best in the industry. Accepting the winning award in the category for PRIDE Travel was S. Nathan DePetris, its co-owner and COO. Mr. DePetris and PRIDE received the award for their overall efforts as an agency and agent providing superlative service, forward-thinking innovation, and consistently hard work under unusual circumstances. As a token of recognition, the award's sponsor Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises bestowed a seven night Caribbean cruise for two on a Celebrity Solstice-class vessel, in a veranda stateroom. Mr. Kassouf and Mr. DePetris are planning to book a western Caribbean cruise February of 2011 to celebrate this accomplishment. Although they have sailed on countless Caribbean cruises, they find Celebrity Cruises' offering of Roatan, Honduras intriguing and are excited to sail on the Celebrity Solstice which they had previously toured extensively but not had the opportunity to sail; Celebrity Cruises' new Solstice class of vessels are arguably destinations unto themselves, designed for the discerning guest. Additionally, the sailing presents an opportunity to further enhance their first-hand experience of this unique and superlative product and the additional port knowledge in order to better serve PRIDE Travel's clients.
In winning the award for SuperStar, DePetris noted that whereas other agencies may focus solely on the 'before' portion and operate more as order takers, PRIDE Travel strives to deliver the expertise of its executives and staff throughout the process, thereby adding value from beginning to end. "No matter how much I may already know, I'm fascinated by the amount of product, destination and travel information there is to learn," DePetris said. "My personal goal is to continuously enhance, expand and extend my knowledge base through education and certification programs that translate into better expertise to deliver superlative customer travel experiences for our clients." He said that finds the best part of his job to be "in collaborating with clients to continuously create the journey of a lifetime." In addition to technological innovations, PRIDE Travel also aims to provide its clients a consultative approach to their travel planning before, during and after the trip.
As part of it's coverage of the awards, TravelAge West magazine has featured DePetris and the top winning agents on the cover and feature article of it's June 21, 2010 special dual WAVE Awards and Trendsetters issue. The highly anticipated magazine issue recognizes the best travel industry suppliers, products, hotels, destinations and travel agents.
About Travel Age West
TravelAge West is the leading trade magazine for travel agents and the travel industry in the 14
western states. Serving its 26,000 readers for 40 years, the biweekly magazine is a main source of news and product information for the region's agents and travel executives. TravelAge West is a part of Northstar Travel Media LLC, a worldwide provider of information, news and data for the travel and hospitality industry. In addition to TravelAge West and Family Getaways, Northstar's portfolio of directories, periodicals and destination information services includes Travel Weekly, Hotel and Travel Index Worldwide, BTP24, Official Meeting Facilities Guide, Intelliguide Corporate, STAR Service Online, Weissmann Reports, Meetings and Conventions, T&E and Travel Professional.
###
ABOUT PRIDE TRAVEL®
Pride Travel of Long Beach, California is a full service agency specializing in cruise, tour package, villa, and condo rentals. We also offer our community the full breadth of travel products and expertise. While we cater to the needs of Gays and Lesbians in the LGBTQ community, we are hetero friendly® and frequently book individuals, couples, and families with children on trips and vacations worldwide. Pride Travel is an award-winning agency that has been recognized for our active participation and contributions to our local and LGBTQ communities. We also hold numerous travel industry certifications and accreditations, as well as official certification by destination and country visitors' bureaus; we are active members and certified by the Travel Institute, the Cruise Line Industry Association, and the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. Original travel articles and content is contributed regularly and distributed at our blog,
http://blog.pride.travel.
PRIDE Travel's media page can be located at
http://www.expertclick.com/19-3675. For more details about our credentials, please visit our website at
www.pride.travel and click on About Us or contact Mr. Marc R. Kassouf, Owner & CEO, at 562.432.3888 or via email at
media2@pride.travel. Pride Travel, Mr. Kassouf and Mr. S. Nathan DePetris, Owner & COO, welcome your inquiries regarding interviews, speaking engagements, and other media collaboration.
###