Jamie Biesiada
After a career in the travel industry spanning more than 40 years, AAA Travel senior vice president Paula Twidale will retire at the end of the year.
Twidale's career spans a variety of verticals in the travel industry. She started in the airline industry, spending 14 years as a passenger service manager for Eastern Airlines then interim director of Boston Logan Airport. From there, she moved to Collette, where she spent 27 years, eventually as its executive vice president. Six years ago, she moved to AAA.
After a career in the travel industry spanning more than 40 years, AAA Travel senior vice president Paula Twidale will retire at the end of the year. Photo Credit: AAA
Considering the breadth and depth of her career, what is her best advice for travel advisors?
"Continue learning, and diversify their knowledge," Twidale said. "Don't just be comfortable in knowing a few destinations. It's great to be an expert in a destination -- a Disney expert, or an Ireland expert, or whatever it is -- but the more product that you can learn and experience, the more passion you'll develop, the more you'll be able to influence others to provide the absolute best vacation experience."
She also encouraged agencies to pay attention to future trends. That includes AI in all its forms, including generative, as well as properly segmenting travelers and offering them personalized travel recommendations.
"Frankly, any agency should be looking at ways to understand what's out there in the overall population," Twidale said. "Look at the population, how it's split, the diversity in the population, the discretionary income that's available in the population. Understand the different personas."
Reflecting on her career, Twidale said technology has had the biggest impact on the travel industry, from access to digital content, to dynamic pricing, to distribution, to the need for speed and convenience.
Witness to impactful events
She's also witnessed a number of impactful events: Sept. 11, pricing increases, the consolidation of airlines and even the weather as the climate changes.
Twidale began at AAA in the beginning of 2019. Going into the pandemic years, she said, the organization was on a high. And while Covid's impact on the industry was undeniable, it did have another interesting effect.
"That was sort of an eye-opener to say, look, we should be living every day to its fullest. I'm not willing to postpone that vacation or that experience that I wanted to do," Twidale said.
That led to the rebound of travel from 2021 into 2022.
This year, Twidale said, AAA's Memorial Day and Independence Day holiday forecasts "broke records." Over the July 4 holiday, for example, AAA predicted 71 million people were traveling.
"We broke the road trip records, the highest we've ever had, and the air traffic was the highest we've ever had," she said.
Stacey Barber will succeed Twidale at AAA, moving from her current executive director role to vice president of travel services.
Twidale has mentored Barber and said she's talented and has great opportunity in the role. She encouraged her to "continue to be a sponge" and "listen, learn and grow." She also encouraged collaboration and engagement with colleagues and others in the industry.
After she retires, Twidale plans to spend time with her family. She also plans to devote time to charities, and perhaps lend her expertise to companies as a board member.
"The message from me is to really have people keep traveling, and always try to make a difference in other people's lives," Twidale said.