Brand USA will be highlighting its Giant Trees and Ancient Forests Insider Guide itinerary (amongst other things) at its travel trade webinar tomorrow, 5 August, at 10.30am.

Brand USA held its premium trade show, the Travel Trade Expo, in New Zealand this week, attracting some 350 agents in Auckland and just over 100 in Christchurch.

• Renee Macdonald, Fuzion Travel, Cambridge;... Renee Macdonald, Fuzion Travel, Cambridge;...
• Erica Banks, House of Travel... Erica Banks, House of Travel...
• Jenny Wilson, Target Travel; Chriss... Jenny Wilson, Target Travel; Chriss...
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Excite Holidays and Brand USA have launched a new series of itinerary-style guides, themed around popular destinations for music across the USA.

Kiwi travellers to the United States are more independent, spend more locally, visit more states and like to get off the beaten track away from the main gateways.

• During the gala night in... During the gala night in...
• Debbie McRobbie, House of Travel... Debbie McRobbie, House of Travel...
• Denise Fowler, The Travel Brokers;... Denise Fowler, The Travel Brokers;...
• Check out the beaver hats…... Check out the beaver hats…...
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The sixty agents who took part in the recent Air New Zealand and Brand USA famil are back with some great photos (and memories).

Excite Holidays has launched its latest campaign, The Music That Made America, in conjunction with Brand USA, Travel Portland and Choose Chicago.

‘Perplexing,’ is how US Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow has described the proposed elimination of the Brand USA tourism marketing agency in President Trump's federal budget document.
With the country’s major travel trade event underway in Washington DC this week and international visitation being the number two export supporting 15 million American jobs, Dow is ‘struggling to understand' how cutting Brand USA squares with the administration’s stated priorities.

The proposed budget cut for Brand USA was not the only ‘elephant in the room’ when the organisation’s president and CEO Chris Thompson addressed 500 media from 70 countries at the official IPW 2017 press conference in Washington DC yesterday.
The other was President Trump’s not particularly welcoming executive order limiting travel from six predominantly Muslim countries.