Mre than 200 affinity travel planners and tourism industry professionals gathered March 9–11 in Owensboro, Kentucky, for the 2025 Select Traveler Conference, a meeting that has drawn delegates from around the world since 1996.
Owensboro is an Ohio River port best known as the home of Bluegrass music and for producing award-winning Western Kentucky-style barbecue and Kentucky bourbon. Delegates were treated to all three during evening events at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as at a Kentucky Derby party that featured custom-made hats for attendees, compliments of the Kentucky Derby Museum and Louisville Tourism.
“We really enjoyed having these travel planners in
Owensboro because we know that once you come here, you’ll want to come back,” said Visit Owensboro president Mark Calitri. “The Group Travel Family was great to work with, and the delegates who came represent a lot of future business for us.”
“Owensboro is a hidden gem,” said Jennifer Ferguson, general manager of the Select Traveler Conference. “If you were not able to join us at the conference, you really should make a trip to Owensboro to see for yourself. Mark Calitri and his staff were on top of every detail and made sure our delegates experienced Owensboro’s authentic appeal.”
Stacey Cabell of Starstuff Travel and Select Traveler Conference partner Charlie Presley kicked off the event with a great panel discussion on independent agents and utilizing CVBs as a resource for travel planning.
Visit Owensboro organized sightseeing tours for all delegates to local sites like Moonlite Bar-B-Q, the new Owensboro Racing and Gaming venue and Green River Distilling Co. The Owensboro Convention Center, where delegates enjoyed expansive views of the Ohio River, showcased the area’s bustling river commerce.
“Our vantage point on the Ohio River was energizing,” Ferguson said. “Due to great weather and those views, the Owensboro Convention Center was as visually appealing as any we’ve ever met in.”
“We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this riverfront and have created a downtown visitor environment that few cities can match,” Calitri said. “I think the delegates were very impressed as a result.”
At the conference’s annual buyer breakout session, moderated by volunteers Becky Simpson of FCNB Bank in Steelville, Missouri, and Pat Holder of Peoples Bank in Clifton, Tennessee, travel planners identified dozens of domestic destinations like Hawaii, Nashville, South Dakota and New Orleans for 2025 trips and listed many popular countries, including Italy, Ireland, Iceland, Scotland and Spain for 2025 overseas excursions.
Meal sponsors included Collette, James B. Beam Distilling Co., Mayflower Cruises and Tours, Visit Owensboro and Visit French Lick West Baden. Two days of marketplace appointments yielded thousands of sales discussions between travel planners, destinations and travel companies.
The 2026 conference will take place in historic Williamsburg, Virginia. Ally Ramello, group sales manager for Visit Williamsburg, came to Owensboro to invite delegates to attend next year. The final dates will be announced shortly. For registration details, visit selecttravelerconf.com or call 800-628-0993.
What delegates are saying
Travel Planners
“We started doing Missouri wine tours 17 years ago to wineries in Hermann, Augusta and St. James. Our clients like four-day, three-night trips, and I figured out that we could do these on Amtrak trains. That has become a real success for us. We also do trips to farms, cruises on yachts and so forth. Our clients like hands-on experiences; nothing we do is cookie-cutter. We do overseas as well. We’ll take 39 on a river cruise in Germany this year, and we’re taking 24 to Ireland this May.”
— Anna Sue Spohn, Itchin 2 Go Travel and Tours
Excelsior Springs, Missouri
“We’re busy! In 2025, we’ll do a Caribbean cruise; Peru with Collette; ‘Noah’ at Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; a river barge trip with Star Destinations in Belgium using a CroisiEurope barge; a mystery trip with 32 signed up so far; Switzerland with Premier; Italy with Mayflower; the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the fall; and the Christmas Markets on the Danube with Mayflower.”
— Margie Zieber, Farmers State Bank
Cameron, Missouri
“This will be a great year for us, and we’re so thankful for what you all with Select Traveler do for us. I’m taking another group to the Ark Encounter this year. I’m taking a group to Alaska for a land and sea cruise. We’re going to see ‘Noah’ at Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania — and I’m here to find some more fun things to do!”
— Brenda Hall, Nightmark Travels
Red Bay, Alabama
“2025 is a very busy year for us, and 2026 is shaping up well. This year, we’re doing two Kenya safari trips; two Ireland trips; Door County in Wisconsin; Kansas City on Amtrak; a New England culinary tour with Mayflower; and the Mall of America. In 2026, we already have a Douro River cruise with Mayflower on the books where our group has the entire ship; Montreal and Quebec in the spring; South Dakota in the fall; and we’re working on others.”
— Beth Hubbard, First State Bank
Mendota, Illinois
“In 2025, we’ll do Mackinac Island; Alaska Land and Sea; a Gems of Eastern Europe river cruise; a land tour of the Amalfi Coast; and Branson, to name a few. We typically have 50 to 80 travelers on our trips, and 75% of those will be female. Our biggest headache is the airlines — they don’t respect groups. They should be thankful for our business.”
— Rosie Mosteller, Rosie’s Recycled Teenagers
Dalton, Georgia
“We take a priest on our Catholic group trips as a spiritual director. We’re doing Italy, Spain and Portugal on a regular basis every year. Brescia College here in Owensboro is a client of ours. This is the Jubilee year in Italy, which will drive even greater traffic with Catholic groups. We also do an Emerald Isle trip to Ireland often with our groups, and we do secular trips like Alaska cruises. We’ll take groups this year to Guatemala, London and Seattle.”
—Rosemary Trowbridge, Faith in Travel
Owensboro, Kentucky
“We started doing Missouri wine tours 17 years ago to wineries in Hermann, Augusta and St. James. Our clients like four-day, three-night trips, and I figured out that we could do these on Amtrak trains. That has become a real success for us. We also do trips to farms, cruises on yachts and so forth. Our clients like hands-on experiences; nothing we do is cookie-cutter. We do overseas as well. We’ll take 39 on a river cruise in Germany this year, and we’re taking 24 to Ireland this May.”
Travel Companies & Destinations
“Our group travel visitation in 2023 was up over 71% from 2022, and it was up 15%–20% in 2024 over 2023. We did $447,000 in sales in our gift shop from groups in 2024. We expect to eclipse 6,000 groups in 2025. I’d say that those are basically 50-50 between corporate and leisure groups. Our restaurant, the Kitchen Table, has all it can handle in high season and a lot of that business is groups. We now offer eight different experiences for groups ranging from tours to tastings.”
—Jason Betts, James B Beam Distilling Co.
Clermont, Kentucky
“Our company’s growth since COVID has been remarkable due to our cash refund policies for clients over that global travel interruption. Our Exploration small-group products are among our most popular now. We have 50 itineraries in Africa, Asia, Antarctica and South America — not to mention Europe. Spotlight tours are popular because our clients enjoy one hotel the entire trip. We describe them as a “cruise on land.” Our question to our clients is simple: ‘Where do you want to go next?’”
— Jack Brinson, Collette
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
“Our river barges will sell at this conference. I have booked one already in Belgium for May 22. There are several planners here we’re already working with. In Africa, they are 16-passenger barges, so groups book the entire barge. We use a paddle wheeler in the Loire Valley in France. We do Venice, the Seine and others. CroisiEurope was a pioneer in river cruising. These Select groups love the idea of having a barge to themselves.”
— Michael Lundquist, CroisiEurope Cruises
Nanuet, New York
“I’ve been the CEO since December 5, so I’m excited about diving into this conference and this market. I’m into innovation — how do we take a historic destination like French Lick and innovate? We have a lot of strengths. We have name recognition, premier amenities and iconic resorts. We know hospitality. We have Pete Dye golf, gaming — the opportunities are endless. I think we can build some innovative packages and itineraries that will sell very well to these high-end buyers.”
— Joe Lannan, Visit French Lick West Baden
French Lick, Indiana
“When it comes to river cruising, everyone wants to move to the next one up. It’s like going to college. I’m selling 2026 here, a lot of river cruises and yachts on the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Baltic. These are a great way to do Greece, Croatia or Italy. Obviously, these yachts can go to many ports the big ships can’t. Our brands are Scenic and Emerald, two of the best in the business.”
— Matt Greenwaldt, Mayflower Cruises and Tours
Lisle, Illinois
“We have multiple products in the tour technology space. A planner or operator can build passenger lists for trips, create rooming lists, take their registration online, display all their products and communicate easily via text and email out of our systems. Long-term, we’re building a database of suppliers that these buyers can access through our system. Today, we still process cash, checks and ACH payments. I’d say 30%–40% of our customers are cashless now, but that’s a curve that will take time to mature.”
— Bryce Wilson, GroupCollect
St. Augustine, Florida
“Visit Williamsburg wants to grow its group business domestically and internationally. We have brand recognition in Canada and France, but in markets like Ireland and Spain, they are more large-city oriented. But we’re finding that authentic American history is appealing to younger travelers everywhere, so they are a market for Williamsburg. We’ll sell special events to buyers here — our Fourth of July celebration, our Garden Symposium and other events attract these groups. We can’t wait to host Select Traveler next year.”
