Who We Are
We believe strong relationships are the true driver of travel decisions, both in consumer communication and distribution development.
Your voice in America
The North American travel market is among the most affluent and dynamic in the world, presenting an excellent opportunity to introduce your travel experience to new customers.
We understand this opportunity comes with formidable barriers to entry in terms of the cost, complexity and time required to engage both consumers and trade in this competitive marketplace.
Your success in North American depends on a robust trade and consumer engagement strategy, implemented by a representative who is recognized as the daily face of your travel experience.
Our Team
Advocate Travel Marketing has recruited a team of talented travel industry specialists to help achieve your goals in North America
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Luke Jones • Director
With over 25 years of experience in tourism marketing and management, Luke Jones is a specialist in destination development through the implementation of effective consumer and distribution programs.
Over a successful tenure at Tourism Australia, Luke held several positions, including Manager Canada, Insights and Planning Manager, and Partnership Marketing Director, the Americas.
Luke’s experience covers the full spectrum of tourism management and marketing, from consumer communications, distribution development, MICE, strategic planning and partnership building with Government and commercial sector interests.
Luke left Tourism Australia in 2011 to found Advocate Travel Marketing. Luke holds an Honors Degree in Marketing from Monash University of Melbourne (Australia) and a double degree in Arts and Business Management from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).
Haryanti Oktavifia • Project Manager
Haryanti is a specialist in CRM and database management, helping build stronger customer relationships for many corporate clients.
With 9 years of experience in FMCG sales and marketing, Haryanti has managed many local and international brands, i.e. Kleenex Tissue, Kotex, Sea Crunch Snack, and My Baby.
Holding a bachelor degree from University of Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia), Haryanti has found her passion in sales and marketing for the travel industry.
Erin Wigger • Business Development Manager
Erin comes from a background of business strategy and partnership marketing, having begun her career as a Project Manager for the Center for Social Epidemiology in Los Angeles.
She has extensive experience in fundraising, promotions, event management and digital marketing. More recently, Erin joined the Advocate Travel Marketing team as a BDM for our leading South Pacific resort clients, where she has excelled in driving new business.
Erin has a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from Georgia State University with a Major in Psychology.
Sabrina Bolin • Account Executive
After graduating with a Degree in Business, Sabrina Bolin set off to make her mark on the world – recognizing early on that she would veer well off the beaten path.
Sabrina fell into the travel industry 6 months out of university, and travel has been a big part of her life ever since. She starting work at Flight Centre USA as their Product Development Manager, then transferred to their wholesale team as a Reservations Supervisor at Infinity Holidays.
Sabrina is a specialist in hotel/resort customer service and reservations management. She holds a Degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Pepperdine University, California.
Vito Anzelmi • Consulting Director
Vito Anzelmi is a dynamic leader with over 20 years of international travel and tourism experience and has a proven track record of bringing big ideas to life while maintaining focus, strategic orientation, and ability to lead sales teams. Formerly Vito was Vice President, Sales - Americas, UK & Europe for Virgin Australia Airlines based in Los Angeles. This role was responsible for the development of sales business plans in line with the Virgin Australia Group long-haul strategies, delivering revenue growth in USA through OTA, TMC, Cruise, retail and tour operator accounts, and driving sales and co-op marketing plans for the market. Vito managed a sales team of 7 staff and implemented CRM for contract management and sales pipeline opportunities.
Previously, Vito was Tourism Australia’s Regional Manager for New Zealand based in Auckland where he was responsible for creation and execution of Tourism Australia’s consumer and trade engagement strategy for the market. He managed consumer and distribution marketing campaigns including digital and print initiatives tied to strategic partners to facilitate sales to Australia.
A commercially astute, sales leader with over 20 years travel industry experience, Katies expertise includes developing multi-channel sales relationships with leisure & corporate accounts, OTAs and TMCs throughout North America, Australia, New Zealand and EMEA (Inbound and outbound).
Previously, Katie was the Senior Account Manager Travel Distribution, Australia and New Zealand for Hertz, she was responsible for strategic development of inbound, outbound, online partners, travel management companies and spearheading travel partnership initiatives. Katie was pivotal in driving tradeshow participation including Visit USA, TRENZ, Corroboree and the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE).
As a native Kiwi, Katie was an active member of the New Zealand Visit USA committee and was a member of the YoungTec Tourism Export council of New Zealand.
Katie Anzelmi • Consulting Director
Aaron Kuehn • Account Manager
From the far northwest San Juan Islands, Aaron was bitten early by the travel bug through his rugby travels and teaching overseas. Aaron has now accumulated 20 years experience in the travel industry; leading, forming, managing, and training both inside and outside sales teams.
Aaron is a specialist in sales development having worked for many years at Flight Center and leading travel brands such as The Rocky Mountaineer.
Aaron holds a BA in History from the University of Northern Iowa, and a Masters Degree in Business & General Management from Regis University Colorado.
Sandy Nerlich • Project Manager
A distribution development specialist, Sandy has over 35 years experience in the North American travel industry, developing successful trade engagement programs for destinations such as Sydney, Western Australia and Queensland. Sandy has built co-op partnerships with leading travel consortia and tour operators, and brought destination brands to life through impactful activations at all the major US trade event forums. She has in-depth knowledge of the travel sales process through her previous roles at Newmans Vacations and ATS Pacific.
In her spare time, Sandy enjoys personal travel and voluntourism projects. She is an active participant with non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity.
Samantha Davies • Account Director Asia/Pacific
A key member of the Advocate Travel Marketing team, Sam Davies brings a wealth of travel experience in retail sales and distribution development. Being a critical thinker and high-level communicator, Sam can easily converse and liaise at all levels with confidence offering tailored solutions that strengthen business relationships. Sam has worked closely with our clients on building strong sales teams and launching new travel products in the United States. She has extensive experience in the digital B2B space and working on training programs for travel advisors.
In her spare time, Sam enjoys painting, Pilates and Bikram yoga. She is also an accredited driving instructor/tester and enjoys teaching people new skills.
Yanick Dalhouse • Media Planner
With almost two decades of international and U.S. based travel experience, Yanick has an established track record of developing, implementing and managing clients and internal marketing teams on both the agency and client side. Yanick’s leadership and outstanding relationship-building skills that include establishing key partnerships with public and private sector organizations make her a highly valued and critical day-to-day strategic lead for our clients’ internal and external marketing communication needs.
Yanick has been the strategic lead for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Before that, she led destination accounts including the Virginia Tourism Corporation (Virginia is for Lovers), the Ministry of Tourism for the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (Freeport, Grand Bahama), the Belize Tourism Board serving as the Director of Marketing & Industry Relations, the Suriname Tourism Foundation, and the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.
Fahmid Kamal • Account Lead
Prior to joining our team, Fahmid held roles across sales, marketing, and business development within the USA travel industry. Most recently, Fahmid served as a Corporate Account Manager with Virgin Australia based in New York City, where he was responsible for leading the airline’s sales efforts with joint venture partner Delta Air Lines. Prior to this, Fahmid held sales and marketing roles at Etihad Airways in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
Fahmid is an avid globetrotter and has recently checked off the 33rd country on his list. Some of his memorable journeys have taken him off-roading in the dunes of Qatari desert and island hopping in the Gulf of Thailand.
Sandra Garcia • Account Manager Mexico
Sandra Garcia is a travel industry sales specialist and an experienced Account Director with 20+ years in the Travel Industry. She is a passionate, dynamic, enthusiastic and relationship driven professional, with a strong network of Mexican travel contacts. A Mexico City native, Sandra is fluent in both Spanish and English languages and currently lives in Mexico City.
For 5 years from April 2018 – October 2023 Sandra was the Account Director, Member Relations Latin America & Caribbean for Virtuoso Travel Network based in Mexico City. In this role she was responsible for developing Virtuoso’s top retail travel and tour operator accounts.
Rebecca Seeds • National Sales Manager Canada
Toronto based, with 10+ years in the retail sector supporting strategy for both tourism & media brands, Rebecca found her passion for people and the travel and tourism industry early by working in travel trade sales and coordinating marketing initiatives with tour operators as well as educating travel advisors about destination product. Past experience includes representing the St. Maarten Tourist Board on agent trainings/workshops, tour operator product building, MICE training, webinars, creating awareness for destination training modules, in-market trade shows, sales missions and trade fam trips.
Sylvie Madore • Sales Manager Quebec
Montreal based, with 15+ years experience in travel & tourism in Canada, Sylvie Madore’s background spans all aspects of trade and media relations, events, television, brand promotions and hospitality. Sylvie delivers enhanced ROI for all clients with her strategic approach and unique way of connecting brands to the Quebecois consumer. She has been instrumental in developing creative trade media strategies and identifying unconventional, yet successful ways to work with the French-Canadian market. Sylvie has extensive hotel experience having been Assistant Director of Sales and Corporate Development for Mortagne Hôtel Congrès in Quebec Canada.