A Canadian travel agent, Natasha Rhodes, of Vision Travel’s Calgary office, has won the award for the Most Innovative VAST (Virtuoso Active and Specialty Travel) at Virtuoso’s annual Travel Week conference in Las Vegas last week. Lynda Sinclair, vice-president of leisure travel for Vision Travel Solutions, made the announcement today.

Rhodes was the only Canadian nominated for the award which was voted on by Adventure and Special Travel tour companies around the world, who are partners in luxury travel association Virtuoso.

“I am elated and honoured,” says Rhodes, who attributes her accolade to out-of-the-box marketing such as inviting clients to a presentation and workshop by an award-winning National Geographic photographer. “And I am so grateful to my supplier partners whom I’ve worked with now for almost 10 years. This is truly a collaborative industry and it is indeed a pleasure to work with such professional and caring people.”

Awards and accolades are nothing new to Rhodes, it seems, having won the Top Active Travel award from Vision Travel Solutions in 2013, being named a, Rising Star Nominee three years in a row- 2010, 2011, 2012 – at the Virtuoso Travel Week Gala Awards, and being named to the 30Under30 list in a travel industry magazine.

“With 10+ years as a Luxury Travel Advisor, I love to ‘travel differently’, whether in my own journeys, or in planning for my clients – avoiding the masses and getting off the beaten path.” says the lead-in to Natasha’s blog, Travel…Differently. “Traveling for wildlife and nature is my passion - I’ve been lucky enough to explore places like the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon, cruising the sub-Antarctic Islands of NZ and AUS, polar bears of Churchill, safari in Botswana and South Africa, trekking through Peru and Chile, to name a few.”

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