At this month’s CoNexion conference in New Orleans, host agencies Nexion Travel Group and Nexion Travel Group Canada bestowed their annual Ambassador Award on travel advisor Helayne Hauw.
The award honors an advisor who “exemplifies success, involvement and dedication,” according to Nexion. Hauw had tears in her eyes as she came onto the CoNexion event stage to the sound of applause from her peers and award ceremony hosts Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel Group, and Mike Foster, president of Nexion Travel Group Canada.
Hauw’s path to the travel industry was indeed unique. At age 55, she retired from a long career as a labor inspector in Canada. Already an avid traveler, she assumed she would spend a good deal of her time on the road with her husband, friends and grown children, who now have kids of their own. But then, on a bit of a whim, Hauw signed up for a six-month college course on travel, and part of the curriculum was to research home-based travel agents and host agencies. In the name of research, she attended a trade show and (serendipitously) met Mike Foster of Nexion Canada.
“Mike was quite instrumental,” Hauw said. “He encouraged me; he knew I had management experience and the life skills to sell travel, and he helped me see that I wouldn’t just be a duck out of water.”
Credit: 2024 Nexion Travel Group
Hauw wasn’t looking to work 40 hours a week, but as a younger retiree, she had the time and flexibility to see what she might accomplish as a travel advisor. Because she knew she was “starting at ground zero,” she immediately joined Nexion Travel Group Canada, which offered important support tools as she launched her business. About five months in, she attended her first CoNexion conference, where she networked with more experienced advisors and preferred suppliers.
That was nearly 10 years ago, and in that time, Hauw has pinpointed her niche: group travel. But not just any group travel — group trips that she leads. Hauw’s social nature and the-more-the-merrier attitude has made her the metaphorical Pied Piper. She was (and is) always planning her own trips, and they regularly morph into larger group journeys booked by her.
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“I will tell people that I’m going to Iceland, or that I’m going to Costa Rica, and then all of a sudden there are eight people, or 16 people, who want to come with me,” Hauw said. “They know I am an experienced traveler, and they know they can just show up at the airport with their suitcase and I’ll tell them how to get there and what to do.”
The people who join her are rarely strangers. Hauw is effectively connecting with her friends and family, plus their immediate networks, to build these groups. She uses Facebook and Instagram primarily (her pages are private), and face-to-face interactions, too. Even a recent afternoon tea with friends led to bookings — Hauw was planning to travel solo with G Adventures in Iceland, using G Dollars (a G Adventures incentive or reward) she’d earned, and when she told her friends about it, they asked to join. Hauw booked their trips and off they went together.
While Hauw is happy to set plans in motion, to make bookings and to travel alongside her friends, she defers to destination experts and trusted local operators like G Adventures to ensure every trip is seamless. Then, she’ll add little details to the itinerary that suit the group. In October of 2022, for example, she helmed a 16-person adventure in Morocco and, to celebrate the end of the journey, she organized a group dinner at the famous Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca. The trip guide and driver joined the fun, singing karaoke with the entire group. Hauw says she’s always been the “party planner” among her family and friends, and that orchestrating events like this never feels like work.
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She’s also long been known as a meticulous organizer. Even when she was a labor inspector, she kept a file on every destination she’d visited, with pamphlets on products, activities and hotels.
“We didn’t have Google back then, remember,” Hauw said. “My colleagues would come into my office and say, ‘Hey, Helayne! I know you’ve been to Hong Kong. Do you have the file?’”
Credit: Helayne Hauw
Today, her passion for travel shows no sign of waning. This past March, she boarded an expedition ship and explored Antarctica — her seventh continent — with HX, and a few friends. Over the summer, she traveled to Munich, Germany, so that her daughter and son-in-law could catch a Taylor Swift concert while she babysat her grandson back at the hotel. And on the horizon is an epic trip that’s both a reunion and a milestone celebration: Hauw and about 10 friends from high school are going to Aruba to mark their 65th birthdays.
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“I sent them an email right after last Christmas, saying, ‘Here’s the plan, who’s in?’” Hauw said. “By Jan. 1, I had deposits from about eight people.”
Also in the works is a group trip with a few coworkers from her old government job; they will explore Quebec City, Canada, for four nights, reflecting on 10 years of retirement as they go. In all, Hauw says that she personally attends about 80% of the trips she books.
“The draw, I think, is me,” Hauw said. “If there’s a marketing plan, I’m it.”
Hauw’s incredibly personal approach to selling travel helps her stand out from the crowd. In a post-conference statement, Hauw’s host agency applauded “her visibility among suppliers and members, both in person and on social media.” Hauw says that receiving this year’s Ambassador Award was “beautiful, and overwhelming.” It is also inspirational proof that there are any number of paths and business models for professional success in the travel industry.