Global Marine Travel and Singapore Airlines Host Exclusive Appreciation Event for Cruise Planners

28th January 2025

Fort Lauderdale, FL – Global Marine Travel (GMT) and Singapore Airlines (SQ) hosted a Cruise Planners Appreciation Event on January 22, 2025, at the Tower Club in Fort Lauderdale celebrating the significant contributions of Cruise Planners agents to the travel and cruise industries. The event highlighted GMT’s collaboration with Cruise Planners and its partnership with Singapore Airlines, the evening’s sponsor.

The evening began with cocktails, light bites, and networking, accompanied by visuals from GMT and Singapore Airlines. Opening remarks were made by Chris Podolsky, GMT’s General Manager North America and Head of Global Sales, who expressed gratitude to Cruise Planners for their business and continued support of the CruiseLink online booking platform and emphasized the strong airline partnership GMT has with Singapore Airlines.

Representatives from Singapore Airlines, Joy Casantosan and Kamran Ahmed, showcased their innovations, including a captivating Airbus A380 video underscoring SQ’s commitment to luxury and excellence, while Cruise Planners’ Ana M. Parodi and Adolfo Granadillo shared their organizational achievements and gratitude towards GMT as well.

The evening’s pinnacle was the awards presentation and raffle draw. GMT honored top-performing Cruise Planners agents with the “Top Ticketing Agent” Awards for 2024, presented to:

• 1st Place: Mark Francis
• 2nd Place: Margarita Alvarez
• 3rd Place: Anoop Mittra

GMT also presented the 2024 “Top Home-Based Travel Agent Franchise Network” award to Cruise Planners. The awards segment concluded with a lively group photo of the winners holding their trophies.

Additionally, raffle prizes included Singapore Airlines gift items, Amazon gift cards, and an Apple AirTag. The event concluded with dessert, networking, and parting gifts, including GMT/CruiseLink laptop cases and sustainable sprout pencils from Singapore Airlines.

GMT representatives Renaud Cyr, Manager Air/Sea; Julia Russell, Marketing Manager; and Scott Fortune, Supervisor, Air Sea Operations, also played integral roles in organizing the event and engaging with attendees throughout the evening.

“This evening was a testament to the outstanding efforts of Cruise Planners agents nationwide, who have leveraged the GMT online booking platform, CruiseLink, to achieve remarkable success in their businesses,” said Mr. Podolsky.

Mrs. Parodi added, “A heartfelt thank you to GMT and Singapore Airlines for hosting such a wonderful evening. Receiving multiple awards as recognition of our partnership was truly gratifying. We look forward to strengthening this collaboration and continuing to grow our sales with GMT.”

About GMT – Global Marine Travel:

Global Marine Travel specializes in cruise line passenger and all marine crew travel – providing dedicated travel management services including a full portfolio of marine and offshore net fares available from global locations, integration with HR and CRM platforms, and decades of experience in operating marine travel and air charter programs. GMT is your reliable partner in travel management whether as part of a long-term strategy, or as a tactical solution during non-routine events meaning you can focus on growing your organization commercially, secure in the knowledge that GMT is looking after your bottom line. For more information, visit FLYGMT.COM.

About Singapore Airlines:

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s history dates to 1947 with the maiden flight of Malayan Airways. The airline was later renamed Malaysian Airways and then Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA). In 1972, MSA split into Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System. Initially operating a modest fleet of 10 aircraft to 22 destinations in 18 countries, SIA has since grown to be a world-class international airline group that is committed to the constant enhancement of the three main pillars of its brand promise: Service Excellence, Product Leadership, and Network Connectivity. Singapore Airlines is the world’s most awarded airline. For more information, please visit http://www.singaporeair.com.

About Cruise Planners:

Cruise Planners was founded in 1994 and is the nation’s largest home-based travel agent franchise network. As a leader in the travel franchise industry, Cruise Planners positions a nation-wide network of 2,500 franchise owners for success by providing innovative marketing programs, proprietary and cutting-edge booking and technology tools, as well as professional development and hands-on training with the industry’s top executives. The company continues to be an industry leader and was named the No.1 travel franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 18 consecutive years and awarded by Franchise Business Review as “Best-In-Category” for 2 years.

Cruise Planners received a 99% franchise owner satisfaction report from Franchise Business Review for 2024. Franchise Business Review also ranked Cruise Planners #3 OVERALL on their list of Top 200 Franchises of 2022. Cruise Planners was recently featured in Entrepreneur as one of the top 30 franchise innovators in technology, has been consistently named as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by the South Florida Business Journal, is on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and was recognized as one of the Top Workplaces by the Sun Sentinel.

Visit our website, www.cruiseplanners.com, for more information or to view the complete list of awards and honors. For those interested in becoming a franchise owner, please visit https://www.cruiseplannersfranchise.com/.

Featured image credited to Tom Serio of Tom Serio Photography.