2025 MAST Member Handbook

Email Communications

MAST sends email newsletters to your agency, keeping you informed of current events and news. All employees of your agency are welcome to receive daily communications. To add someone to our email list, please complete the form HERE. Member emails will arrive under the following categories:

Member News

Quick-read news bulletin contains meeting and event announcement, timely member and supplier news, marketing promotions, registration reminders, and an upcoming events calendar.

You can also find a list of links to recent Member News Emails on the mvptravel.com website at the bottom of the right-hand column.

JV Memo

Monthly newsletter including industry news, shareable content, and fun information for JV Members young professionals and their Agency Owners.

Headquarter Updates

MAST Headquarter Updates, mainly from the President & COO, are sent out periodically as needed. Headquarter Updates will usually contain New Preferred Supplier announcements, and information and updates on industry affairs necessary on sharing with the membership.

MAST Travel Advisors Only Facebook Group

This is a PRIVATE GROUP for MAST ADVISORS ONLY: to protect the candid, open sharing of information, content is not to be shared with any individuals outside the group or preferred supplier representatives/companies.

Guidelines of use:

1. The purpose of this (page/forum) is for Support and to Gain Knowledge – It is not to train you or your staff or bypass researching a basic topic. When asking for recommendations, please provide qualifying information so that conversations remain constructive and efficient.

   – It is not where you complain or “rant” about things but to ask constructively if anyone has had an issue with a certain supplier, etc. If you would like MAST Headquarters to assist with a supplier issue, please contact the MAST Staff directly via email with complete booking details.

   Usage guidelines:
   -Agency owners are responsible to give instructions to employees and ICs about usage
   guidelines
   -Any posts deemed inappropriate such as spam, chain letters are automatically deleted
   -Any posts promoting or regarding personal and non travel related business are deleted
   -Any posts deemed offensive are deleted
   -Any posts or comments deemed unprofessional or disruptive to the efforts of the organization are deleted at the administrator’s discretion.

   Please remember this is a professional, business forum and posts or comments should be written as so.

   Group administrators reserve the right to delete posts that do not meet these objectives and guidelines.

   As a reminder, use the “search this group” bar on the left-hand side of your desktop or laptop screen to find topics previously discussed. To search for a topic on your mobile device, see the magnifying glass/search icon at the top of your phone screen within the Facebook Group. You can type in locations, resort names, etc. to find past posts.

   Only personal pages will be approved to join the Facebook Group. Business Pages will not be accepted.

Owners Only Facebook Group

This group has been created for the sole purpose of Agency Owner communication. MAST Headquarters will continue to post any updates or announcements ONLY in the “MAST Travel Advisors Only” Facebook Group, which is open to all travel advisor employees and ICs of MAST. Agency Owners will be responsible for differentiating between the two separate Facebook groups. This page follows the same rules as other MAST private group pages.

Consumer Awareness and PR

MAST’s “Consumer Awareness and PR” campaign is intended to promote the travel advisor profession and MAST members in particular. To start this campaign, MAST worked with a company to produce a video that promotes the use of travel advisors. This video can be shared on any of your social media sites from YouTube by searching Save Time and Money – Use a Professional Travel Consultant.

Both members and suppliers appeared in the video. The video has been distributed through social media and coincides with a variety of social media activities to promote travel, travel professionals, and MAST members.

More recently, with 2019 being our Anniversary year and having our highest attended Sales Sensation yet, we conducted a large, 500-person group photo holding a banner that said “Our Network of Travel Professionals”. MAST Staff and the Meetings & Events Committee thought it needed to be emphasized that when your clients book their travel dreams with a MAST Travel Advisor, they not only get your one-on-one professional services, but they also get the support, expertise, and care of this entire network of professionals. These are all the people working on their behalf and who have their back from the beginning of the planning process to after they return home. This photo can be shared across your various social media platforms to highlight the connections and clout of your business.

In 2020 MAST launched its Tourism Strong Campaign. For the past 51 years, MAST Travel Advisors have been guiding travelers on making their travel dreams come true – whether it be to help them cross off their last bucket list destination, unique dining recommendations in off-the-beaten-path towns, or acquiring their all-access, front of the line passes to some of the world’s most famous historical sites.

We realized their upcoming travels were put on pause and the tourism industry was scrambling to keep up with policy changes and getting travelers home safely. With Expedia experiencing technical difficulties, Costco travel clients with nowhere to turn, and BookIt.com closing their doors leaving travelers stranded, it was the perfect opportunity to capitalize on why using a travel advisor is more important than ever!

Through our Tourism Strong Campaign, MAST assisted members in staying in front of their clients, via social media and email marketing, with appropriate and subliminal messaging to continue to inspire travel. We wanted to have them thinking about where they will go on their next adventure when it’s time to re-emerge.

The Tourism Strong Campaign took home the Gold Travel Weekly Magellan Award in 2021.

2023 through 2025 will focus on a number of new consumer awareness digital media initiatives.

Although the primary objective is to showcase travel professionals and heighten consumer awareness of the work that travel advisors do for their clients, these efforts have generated leads for MAST members as well. The ongoing results of these projects help improve the public image of the travel advisor community.

MAST Headquarter Virtual Broadcast Updates

Offered quarterly, MAST will gather its members nationwide for a virtual Headquarter Broadcast Update. We will discuss all things MAST, review any new programs, welcome new members, hear from guest speakers, and share new insights. Sponsoring suppliers will be featured during this broadcast with a recorded audio/visual commercial segment.