define fam tour

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What is the meaning / definition of FAM Trip in the hospitality industry ?

The term FAM stands for Familiarisation. The Tours – commonly known as FAM Trips – are trips organised by travel providers (can be a Tour Operator, an Airline, a Hotel Chain , a Tourism Board or other DMOs representing a Destination, etc.) with the purpose of educating about their products &amp services and promoting them.

Usually it is dedicated to everyone who is involved in the selling and promoting process of this particular product/ property / destination. It typically hosts travel agents and expedients, travel media (writers, journalists, bloggers) and other important players &amp partners.

Creating awareness and at the same time networking and building relationships are the main aims of a FAM trip .

FAM´s are very important in the hospitality industry . Basically speaking if the travel agent knows and likes your property (and the location), he will book his clients into it. FAM´s are usually FOC ( free of charge ) or available at a discounted fee.

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What You Should Know About a FAM Trip

Annie Brigham, Digital Marketing Coordinator

What is a FAM trip?

Who attends a fam trip, who pays for a fam trip.

What are the benefits of a FAM trip for Travel Agents and Media Personnel?

What are the benefits of a FAM trip for the Hosts?

What are some things to keep in mind when planning a FAM trip?

A FAM trip stands for “familiarization trip” and is one incentive of being in the travel industry. FAM trips are exclusive educational trips for travel agents, media personnel, and resellers. These familiarization trips provided by travel businesses such as travel operators, tour operators, and accommodation suppliers allow them to experience their services and destinations first-hand. FAM trips are opportunities for travel businesses to familiarize agents and media personnel with their destination and immerse them in the local culture, introduce them to local operators, and highlight the benefits their company offers, essentially take them backstage. For instance, they can have the opportunity to meet a celebrity chef that they have been referring their clients to.

The usual people presented on these trips are Travel Agents, suppliers, and media partners such as Journalists, Editors, Influencers, & Tour Operators. These individuals are necessary for countless travel businesses’ success, and as suppliers and travel operators, you are looking to build a long-term working relationship with them. The aim is to keep track of key industry influencers and invite people relevant to your industry’s success. These invitations may rope in a travel agent you have worked with in the past, who you want to enhance your relationship with or introduce new offerings to, or a new prospect who has recently jumped on your radar who can potentially help you collect new business.

Though FAM trips are endlessly changing and evolving, and differentiate per business, tour operators, cruise lines, and hotels interested in showcasing their points of interest typically provide everything for these trips. FAM trips are more often than not fully sponsored invite-only events unless there is a partnership with a rental car company or airline that exists. Sponsorships are customary because the host provides the money or product in exchange for their visit.

What are the benefits of a FAM trip to Travel Agents and Media Personnel?

Familiarization trips present numerous benefits to the attendees. The head benefit of a FAM trip is that it allows travel agents and other travel industry providers to gain ideal first-hand experience. This involvement enables them to understand better the several benefits that different kinds of trip excursions offer to their clients. As a result, they can better supply the perfect services and vacations to their client based on their desires and needs and effectively inform their clients on what they can expect. In addition, media personnel, travel writers and editors, and photographers can gain first-hand experience that can help provide better content, details, and photographs for their future publications. These trips grant journalists opportunities to develop tailored stories that they may want to develop further. For example, the trip may introduce them to a chef who has a fascinating life story or recipe to share. A further benefit is that the FAM trip guests can expand their professional network by building connections with other travel agents, suppliers, and media personnel; most FAM trips embrace downtime to relax with other professionals. This schedule allows them time to get in touch with industry experts and exchange stories on what has worked for their business. By developing long-lasting relationships with travel operators and suppliers, they will also acquire better deals for themselves and their future clients.

What are the benefits of a FAM trip to the Hosts?

Arranging a “familiarization trip” is a valuable marketing tool. As a host of a FAM trip, one benefit is that you can generate new leads and business for your company. By permitting these professionals to gain first-hand experience with your products, they will better understand and share the benefits of your travel offerings with their clients. When it comes to benefits from hosting media personnel is that you are enhancing your media coverage; travel writers and photographers take part in these trips to photograph your offerings and compose content. If you can impress and inspire your guests during a FAM trip, then you should be able to generate first-rate reviews and recommendations for your travel business. For example, one of our clients , Arizona, invited an Editor in Chief on a FAM trip to their destination. The Editor in Chief made a customized trip with a luxury angle and published over 20 full pages of material about the destination and included them in the cover. The clients were very thankful for these results and said that the benefits of these results were worth more than five times that than the overall cost of the FAM trip.

After conversing with some of our employees regarding their client’s FAM trip success stories, we have put together some things we think you should consider when planning your FAM trip: You must research and plan the trip and itinerary during the FAM trip planning stage according to your media personnel and travel agent’s profiles. Look at their previous publications and create activities that they will find appealing, craft experiences with multiple “wow factors” that they can share in their publications. Keep in mind that it is up to the criteria of your guest when it comes to what will get published; not everything that they experience will be incorporated. Provide thorough itineraries and trip information as soon as possible in the planning process; this will allow your FAM trip guests to raise any concerns or questions ahead of time and will enable you to customize their stay exceedingly well. When crafting a detailed itinerary for your guests, you must also be mindful of their time on your trip; you must provide a good balance of activities and educational events with free time to relax and take a breather. Lastly, put together a plan for contingencies; keep in mind that not everything will go to plan. It would be safest to prepare for anything from a last-minute guest cancellation up to flight cancelations, emergencies, or lockdowns. But, again, it is better to over plan.

Special thanks to our Connect Worldwide FAM trip experts Eduardo Peraza and Pedro Berruecos for contributing to this article. Contact us today if you are looking for a destination marketing partner or are interested in learning more about attending, planning or hosting a FAM trip.

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What Are Fam Trips And How To Get The Most Out Of Them

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Familiarisation Trips, better known as Fam Trips, are educational trips organized exclusively for media partners or travel agents and resellers, by travel businesses such as tour operators and accommodation establishments.

Fam Trips are designed to equip participants with adequate product knowledge to either sell onto clients or publish for media coverage. Travel businesses host Fam Trips to showcase their business and product to the people who resell or cover them in media.

Either way, the fundamentals of Fam Trips remain the same, you want to create memorable, fun, and personable experiences for the people who undertake them. They are essentially marketing tools that highlight your travel offering and are one of several ways to generate leads and new business for your travel company.

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Who Goes On Fam Trips?

Fam Trips are usually set up either as invitation-only sponsored learning trips or at discounted rates exclusively available for travel agents to book.

Travel agents and resellers go on Fam Trips to experience first hand a travel product or offering. This gives them insight into the finer details of the offering and lets them add a personal touch to their sales pitch.

Travelers are on the lookout for personalized travel experiences and something as simple as a travel agent knowing whether there is a packed breakfast available to take on a day hike excursion without needing to check details with the establishment saves time, conveys efficiency and will attract customers to your travel business .

Fam trips are not only for travel agents or resellers though, media partners also participate in them too. Travel writers or photographers join Fam Trips for media to write up articles and take beautiful images to post and share in their publications.

Tips On How To Run Successful Fam Trips

You want to apply the same basic principles to your Fam Trips regardless of whether you are hosting Media or Suppliers. In both cases, the trips should be experiential and relevant to your product.

Set Expectations

Email your suppliers and media partners their proposed itineraries a few weeks in advance so that they know what to expect from the Fam Trips and can raise any questions they may have to prepare for it.

When hosting Fam Trips for Media discuss your expectations for the press coverage before the trips begin so that you are all on the same page. Establish where the write-ups will be published, the length and frequency of the articles, expectations for social media posting etc.

Offer Authentic Experiences

While you do need to pull out the stops and offer the same experiences that full paying guests would get, you do not want to misrepresent your offering by including something not ordinarily part of your repertoire.

Clients will be disappointed if they read about a sundowner experience on the riverbank but discover on arrival at your lodge that it is not in fact on your activities list it.

Create Partnership Offerings

Contact surrounding travel businesses to see if they would be interested in creating partnership offerings to provide to the suppliers and media partners.

Approach restaurants who might be interested in hosting groups for some of their meals. Or contact a bicycle tour operator to ask if they would lead groups on a trail experience.

This will give the other businesses the opportunity to increase their visibility and get mentions in the media and it will help you to spread some of the costs involved in hosting Fam Trip groups.

Offer Alternative Itineraries

Where applicable, showcase a number of your most popular activities to the people on your Fam Trips. Not only will this highlight more aspects of your travel business, but it will also negate the possibility of accidentally excluding someone from partaking in particular activities.

Consider people’s varied interests and add one or two alternatives to your itineraries. The idea is for your suppliers and media partners to make the most of their Fam Trip experience so limiting your educational Fam Trip activity to a snorkeling trip might not work in your favor if you are hosting people who do not enjoy swimming for example.

Set A Manageable Schedule

Remember the people you host on your Fam Trips are working even if it may not always seem like it. With this in mind, remember to allocate a certain amount of downtime on your Fam Trips to allow your travel agents and media partners to check in with the office, organize the information they are putting together on your travel product, or have a quick catch up with the family at home.

Provide All Necessary Information

Your suppliers and media partners are going to need the details of all the accommodations they stay in, restaurants they dine at, and activity providers who guide them on their Fam Trips. As the organizer, you will have easy access to all of this information.

Compile a list of all the names, email addresses, contact numbers and social media handles of your partners onto a database and share it with the people on your trip. This way they will be able to accredit everyone accordingly.

You can include the brochure images and write-ups of your travel product in this informational package too. You might find that your suppliers need to update your product on their site and this will make sure that they have what they need.

Most of this information will likely be required in a digital format, so either email it or make it available to download from a limited access portal.

Make Follow Ups After The Trips

Do not leave it too long after your Fam Trips have finished to follow up with your travel agents and resellers to get their feedback.

See if they have any questions or suggestions for you and check that your media posts are published and all the information is optimized, correct, and up to date.

Keep the communication lines open and find out what worked and what didn’t and learn from each experience and Fam Trip.

Remember that your travel agents, suppliers, and media partners are key players in your business’ success and Fam Trips are a good way to nurture relationships with them. So consider the time and resources you spend hosting Fam Trips and nurturing relationships as an investment in marketing your business and promoting your travel offering.

In an industry where experience is everything, going the extra mile and working together to give clients the best possible service will translate into stellar reviews and glowing recommendations for all parties involved.

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• April 26, 2022

Getting the Most Out of a FAM Trip 

What is a familiarization—or FAM—trip all about?

There is no substitute for personal visits as a way of learning about a destination. Governments, as well as suppliers—such as cruise lines and tour operators—often sponsor FAM trips. These trips are offered to bona fide travel professionals and others in the travel industry at a reduced rate to familiarize them with the travel destination or product.

And there is no better time to schedule your FAM trips than right now because your clients are traveling again and expect YOU to know the best destinations, cruise ships, attractions, and accommodations to recommend. To jumpstart your trip planning, don’t miss the engaging, informative, and entertaining session A Master Class on Making FAM Trips Work , presented TOMORROW at 1:00 pm (EST) by Anne M. Smith, CTIE . This session will be extremely popular, so register immediately!

In some cases, FAMs are offered as an incentive by suppliers or the agency’s owner or manager as a reward for performance. More often, however, travel advisors take FAMs so they can inspect hotels and restaurants, sample attractions, experience local culture, and learn about the sponsoring companies. This allows travel advisors to be able to sell those products more effectively. FAMs usually are short, concentrated learning trips in a business format.

But what should you know about a FAM trip? Sometimes, the best tips come from you, and we like to share those when we see them. In a recent Facebook blog, “Travel Agent Hacks,” the blog’s creator, Lene Heltberg Minyard, asked agents what factors they consider in deciding whether to go on a FAM and what makes FAMs so valuable.

There were many helpful responses, but Margie Jordan, CTA, Vice President of Agency Education at CCRA Travel Commerce Network, provided insightful questions for travel advisors to ask before embarking on a FAM. Here are excerpts from her post:

• Is it a destination that is represented by your agency, something you actively market and sell or have in your existing business plan to add as a new destination?
• Are the properties you’ll see ones that match the quality of hotels/resorts you sell?  If you go, have you mapped out key questions, goals, things you need to know or see? 
• What’s your plan to market the knowledge you gain from the FAM? Blog posts, articles, videos, newsletters, photos? 
• How will you turn what you learned into marketing that converts? 
• Do you have any clients interested in going who can follow your journey? 
• Does the cost of the FAM fit within your marketing budget for education and training? 
• If all of this is a go, the FAM is of huge value to you and your business. Set up a series of automated social posts so you can actually work and learn without the pressure of sharing up-to-the-minute updates on your trip. Perfect to schedule are posts like, “Today, we’re on our way to Florence.” Include a few things to know about Florence with a great photo. At the end of every day, I make a recording of all the things I saw, learned or experienced. It’s a great way to remember the small details. Send that recording to a transcriptionist, and you have the beginning of some great content. FAMs should be strategic and can work really well in your marketing if you plan well. Research where you’re going, the tourist spots you’ll see, the history of the region, hotels close to those spots that you may not see during your FAM, etc.

These are excellent questions for advisors to consider when prepping for upcoming FAMs. We also recommend observing proper etiquette while on FAM trips. This means you should:

• Plan to immerse yourself in the local culture to really experience a destination.
• Be kind to everyone with whom you come in contact because you represent yourself, your agency, and your country.
• Don’t overindulge because this surely will detract from your learning and harm your reputation.
• Always exhibit professional behavior because this is a business trip, not a vacation.

Last, but not least, we urge you to sign up for tomorrow’s exciting A Master Class on Making FAM Trips Work webinar. If you don’t, you’ll be missing something SPECTACULAR!

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How to Design a Successful FAM Tour

There are many more critical factors of a successful FAM tour than most people realize. Many of these are not widely known and/or acknowledged by destinations and their participating hospitals clinics hotels government agencies and other organizations. As a result hosts spend money for FAM tours and get no return on their expenditure. In fact a FAM tour is an investment and should provide a return on its expense.

So what are these aspects that make a FAM tour effective and how does the host make a profit? First lets look at the generally accepted medical tourism industry standard and then we will examine the actual success factors themselves.

What constitutes a successful FAM tour?

A FAM tour is industry slang for Familiarization Tour. As its name suggests the tour is intended to familiarize the attendees with the host destination. Medical tourism industry FAM tours are currently made up of trips of six to 12 people to a particular destination.

During the tour the attendees visit the destination hospitals and clinics stay at select hotels and engage in some tourism activities. There is also the customary exchange of contact information with the intention of future business being conducted between the attendees and the participating destination FAM tour organizations.

Some of the better-planned FAM tour hosts do some screening of the attendees to make sure that they carry the right amount of influence in the relevant industries. Destinations are often looking for buyers as they are usually called. Buyers are decision makers in the health insurance or employment areas both of which are considered to be sources of potentially large numbers of patients for the destination countries and the participating organizations.

Some of these better planned tours also schedule some business meeting time for the attendees and the host organizations to kick start their business relationships. Often times visits can end without serious business being discussed but rather a promise is made to discuss business in subsequent phone or other meetings.

Both these activities  the screening and the business meetings  are designed to increase the success of the FAM tour.In short the host destinations are attempting to ensure that the expense brings them some return.

However while these are excellent activities they do not guarantee a successful FAM tour. In order for it to be successful the following items must be considered and addressed during the planning stage. (Note that examples of the critical success factors are presented at the end of the article). ‍

Factors for success

1. Build a relationship:- Both destination hosts and FAM tour attendees must understand and agree with the FAM tour objective(s) which is usually to create an event that will trigger a relationship or that will enhance an existing relationship.

Most FAM tours are designed to either create business for the destination host hospitals clinics and participating organizations or to expose the destination host hospitals to the FAM tour attendees in the hope of generating future business. ‍

It's important to note that without the relationship factor the FAM tour is most likely to generate only business transactions at best. Many hospitals complain that after spending money to host a FAM tour they received little to no patients from their efforts.

Usually this is because the attendees are busy sending patients to destinations with which they have a relationship in addition to a business agreement. By introducing the relationship factor FAM tour destination hosts and attendees start building the foundation for a long and fruitful relationship.

The communication becomes more open and both parties work together to achieve success. Trust begins to develop and barriers are broken down. This sort of relationship usually grows to include other business in addition to medical tourism business. ‍

‍ 2. Define the host:- FAM tours generally experience some disarray and confusion during the implementation stage when it is unclear to the attendees who exactly the hosts are. Are the hosts the government agencies the hospitals and clinics the funding organizations or a combination?

It should be absolutely clear and transparent.Also the relationship between the host(s) and the other participating organizations should be abundantly clear. Of course there is an optimal arrangement that will benefit all parties concerned and the host(s) should consult with someone who has experience in the industry and who can help them leverage their host position to achieve successful results. ‍

‍ 3. Identify the tour attendees The host needs to figure out whom to invite to the FAM tour. Remember the objective of the tour is to create an event that will trigger a relationship or that will enhance an existing relationship.

Knowing that this relationship is primarily between the host(s) and the attendees it becomes apparent that the attendees should be people who represent organizations that will benefit the host(s). However the attendees should also be people who represent organizations that the host(s) can benefit.

A relationship is between two parties for the tour to be successful both parties must benefit.

‍ 4. Assign a facilitator and create a schedule:- Now that the host(s) attendees and objectives have been identified the FAM tour needs a schedule and facilitator(s). A facilitator is the person who will actually implement the tour. The person should be fluent in the visitors language but the tour can still be effective if one of the attendees is an interpreter.

The facilitator should be widely available and have no time conflicts for the duration of the tour. The person should also be savvy in the business ways of the destination host country. FAM tour attendees always have many questions and the lack of answers can quickly render a FAM tour ineffective.

An effective FAM tour schedule is one that contains hospital and clinic visits some government agency visits opportunity for business discussions and some social activity usually with a tourism component associated with it. The length of the tour depends on a number of factors. See the table below for an example of a three-day tour.

‍ 5. Secure appropriate housing:- The lodging is central to the FAM tour and should be absolutely first class. First the travel time between the host hotel and the hospitals and clinics to be visited should be minimized.

Second the host hotel should have some examples of the types of rooms that will be available to future patients including fully accessible rooms and fitness facilities. The cuisine should be international in flavor and availability and room service should be 24/7.

Remember that the attendees will be conducting business with their countries while visiting and this may involve a time difference. Therefore they should be able to access all the hotel services round the clock.

‍ 6. Narrow your marketing/hospital selection:- Destination countries should focus on the one or two procedures that they have world-class reputations in and the lowest prices. It is not good marketing to advertise all the hospital and clinic procedures because it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the metrics that make medical tourism viable. Patients and buyers look for quality equal to or better than what is available in their home country and at the best price possible. ‍

‍ 7. Include tourism activities:- There are two reasons to included tourism activities in a FAM tour. The first is because most patients will be accompanied by a companion and the companion may need to re-energize themselves during the patient visit.The second reason is to advertise the destination country.

The most popular and effective form of marketing is word-of-mouth. There is no better way to encourage repeat visits whether for healthcare purposes or for tourism purposes than to make sure that the visitors see what the destination country has to offer.

‍ 8. Plan efficient and effective business meetings:- Of course the main reason for the FAM tour to begin with is to motivate business and to do this via a relationship approach. This approach is not only a smart way to do business but it also is an excellent marketing approach for the destination country and its hospitals and clinics.

Some time has to be dedicated toward business and business activities. Careful consideration and planning should be undertaken. FAM tour participants should be given a schedule that clearly shows what all the activities are well in advance of them leaving their countries to start the tour.

They should be clearly instructed on what business activities are going to take place how to prepare for them and what their role is going to be. This will ensure a smooth business discussion.

‍ 9. Appoint a business meeting facilitator:- In addition to the above recommendations a business meeting facilitator has to be appointed. This person does not have to be the same person that facilitates the whole tour.

This person should be trained and should know who the attendees are their titles and responsibilities the objectives of the FAM tour and the objectives of the business discussions. This will ensure an error-free business environment.

‍ 10. Follow up:- Follow-up is essential to the eventual success of any FAM tour. Follow-up is the ultimate responsibility of the hosts. They are the ones that have made the financial outlay in order to achieve an objective and therefore they are the most invested in the outcome.

At the business meetings and other FAM tour meetings milestones for certain activities would have been established. These milestones should be the focus of all follow-up activities.

Buyers beware

Always prescreen your buyers and evaluate their position in the industry. There has been a growing trend of Fake Buyers on Fam Trips. They may be consultants and marketing companies that use the Fam Trip as a fully paid trip to market their services directly to the hospitals. If disclosed in advance and if the host finds value in it then the consultant may provide value to the host. ‍

A FAM tour is a one-time opportunity for a host country and its hospitals and clinics to impress the tour attendees. This is a cant fail proposition. In other words everything must go well during a FAM tour otherwise word-of-mouth communication will certainly cause future problems for the host country.

All efforts must be made to ensure that the FAM tour is most impressive and that the attendees are supremely confident that the host country offers a viable short- and long-term solution for their healthcare issues. If all the above factors are addressed successfully a FAM tour will provide just the jump start that a host country needs in the medical tourism industry. ‍

About the Author:

Alex Piper is the President of OneWorld Global Healthcare Solutions a consulting company committed to creating a worldwide healthcare solution.With over 17 years experience in Insurance Marketing and Employee Benefits Management Alex Piper possesses extensive knowledge of the U.S. Healthcare Market and the influence that Insurance Carriers U.S.

Employers Hospitals Physicians Physician Groups Healthcare Professional Organizations and Government will have on the next generation of global healthcare.As an insurance executive at a top Fortune 50 U.S. company he spent eight years designing employee and customer benefits programs including healthcare programs for the large supplier and distribution partner companies of his employer.

He was responsible for creating a benefits program that had over U.S.$140 million in assets and had over 1300 companies enrolled. His latest program grew from zero to $40 million in insurance premiums in less than two years!

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Travel Agent FAM Trips: What They Are + How to Find Them

Ahhhh.... the travel industry. It's a beautiful industry and one we here at HAR are lucky enough to work/play in! One of the greatest perks in travel are travel agent familiarization trips, or FAM trips for short. They're also sometimes called FAM tours.

Here's the thing, people outside the industry usually have two conflicting thoughts about travel agents:

1) When they find out I work with travel advisors they ask if travel agents still exist.

2) Then they immediately think I'm a travel advisor and ask, " Do you get to travel a lot? For free?!? "

Here's the answers to those questions:

1) Ooooooh, my friend, travel agents sure do exist! In 2022, traditional travel agencies market share was 21% and online travel agencies was 22% ? True story. Here's more on a travel agent career outlook .

2) And yes, as a producing travel advisor you get to travel a lot and sometimes for free or at a significant discount. Producing is the key word here. :)

What I can never figure out is how you can think travel agents aren't around if they get to travel all the time to gorgeous destinations for free or reduced costs. 🤔 Wouldn't the market be flooded with people wanting to become a travel agent if that was the case?!

These enviable trips are called FAM trips and they're key to travel advisors being invaluable resources to their clients.

(For those of you dying for some 'me time' on the beach, don't worry, FAM trip is short for familiarization trip. It DOES NOT mean you have to bring your family with you on the trips. 😂 In fact, if +1s are allowed, it is often at a little higher cost but often FAM trips are just for advisors.)

So let me break down what a FAM trip is, what happens on FAM tours, where you can find FAM trips, and the question I know you all are asking, how you can get invited on a familiarization trip!

What is a FAM trip for travel agents?

A travel agent FAM trip is a trip offered by a vendor, destination or another entity in the travel industry

Let's clarify one thing. A FAM trip is not the same as travel agent discounts on personal travel. For that, you can check out our article with over 200+ travel agent rates we lovingly keep updated for you. :)

A travel agent FAM trip is a trip offered by a vendor, destination or another entity in the travel industry—like an industry association, a host agency or a travel consortium to travel advisors—allowing the travel agent to experience the product/destination so that they can better sell it.

Travel advisors are salespeople at their core and like any salesperson, they can sell more when they experience the product or service.

Vendors and destinations know that travel agent FAM tours are a cost-effective way to increase sales. All the pics the travel agents post while on FAM trips are darn good PR and advertising!

I'll tell you a secret: once you become a travel agent and start connecting with industry colleagues

a) you will get out of offices all. the. time. from colleagues traveling to awesome places and

b) your social feed will be crammed full of pics from your industry besties traveling around the world. :)

What are the different types of familiarization (FAM) trips?

Those social feeds crammed with enviable travel photos I just mentioned? Well, they are meant to be marketing the destination/property/etc. So you should definitely be feeling FOMO and jealousy.

BUT! That could literally be the only hour the advisor was able to enjoy the pool or beach during their 3-day familiarization trip. Like most things on social, the reality of a FAM trip is often much different than what the photos painted.

Let's break down FAM tours into a few categories so you have a better idea of what to expect.

And for the record, I just created these categories since I really feel like we need to differentiate them so please help me grow this industry lexicon and start throwing them around in industry forums! 😂

Working FAM trips

These FAM trips are exactly what they sound like. Working FAMs are the majority of familiarization trips and they are meant to maximize your time in the destination.

This means that you're often up at 6 am, on your feet all day visiting multiple properties (called site inspections ) or having in-destination experiences like a pasta-making class or white water rafting.

After a full day of action, you sit down for your dinner and do some serious networking. You don't hit the bed until 10 or 11 pm. FAM trips are tons of fun, but they are also tiring! It's like traveling with your ADHD friend that is inexhaustible. :)

The company or destination that organized the FAM trip wants you to see and experience as much as possible so you often have a jam-packed schedule from sun up to past sundown.

EXPERIENTIAL FAM trips

Experiential FAM trips are still working familiarization trips but have a more relaxed schedule, as in you won't be touring 4 resorts in Jamaica a day and then have evening activities. :)

You might be staying at a dude ranch and each day have an activity or two planned.

Or you might have attended a travel conference and signed on for the pre/post tours where you get to do a guided activity each day and then return to your hotel at night. (Here's a guide to maximize your travel conference learning and networking.)

Experiential FAM tours are my favorite FAMs because they're easier to remember more vividly. Plus, I don't come away completely overstimulated and sleep deprived!

AWARD FAM TRIPS

When your agency starts really producing, award FAM trips will open up for you.

Simply put, they're awards trips for top producing travel agencies but they also function as a FAM because they may include visiting a few properties. Plus, when most people think of FAM trips, they're wondering about free or discounted tours and award FAM trips fall into that category.

On award FAM trips, the host really pulls out the stops so you can experience all the host and the destination have to offer

On award FAM trips, the host really pulls out the stops so you can experience all the host and the destination have to offer! After all, these are the agencies that bring in a lot of sales.

Award FAM trips are typically fully comped and the familiarization trip host will have all sorts of great things planned for you! It's a lot of networking and fun, and less work. :)

What happens on a travel agent FAM trip?

Your itinerary will vary based on the type of travel agent FAM trip you're on. As I mentioned earlier, working FAMs have jam packed schedules!

If I were to generalize, I would say that on a FAM tour expect to be wined and dined at different properties or restaurants. You'll tour various properties where you'll see different room categories as well as meet with key staff that will allow you to better serve your clients.

When it comes to cruise ships, cruise FAM trips are often called Seminars at Sea when you get to sail on the ship and ship inspections when you tour it while it's in port.

And equally as important on FAM tours is the networking and bonding that happens with your host and fellow travel colleagues. Most advisors have their family and then they have their 'travel family', which are the colleagues they get to travel around the world with. As we all know, travel bonds people like nothing else!

Cruise FAM trips are often called Seminars at Sea when you get to sail on the ship and ship inspections when you tour it while it's in port.

Travel agent FAM trip technology + FAM trip marketing

You'll take tons of pictures and videos to share with clients and use for marketing. You'll also take a lot of notes. How do you keep all that FAM trip info straight? Here's a few resources for you.

Fam with Intention has a paid course on what to do before, during and after your travel agent FAM tour to make sure you maximize the experience.

Keeping track of everything you see and do, as well as the people you meet on travel agent FAM trips is challenging. HAR has free ship inspection forms as well as free site inspection forms that can help you out. They're old school PDF but can't beat free!

And if you are looking for something way more snazzy in app form (paid), check out MyFamTrip or FamGuru .

How much do travel agent FAMs cost?

I wish I had a specific answer for you but travel agent FAM prices will vary from completely free (sometimes referred to as hosted, as in they're 100% hosting you) to a decent discount.

Here's what you can generally expect included on a travel agent FAM trip:

• Excursions/Activities

What's usually not included on travel agent FAM tours:

• Tips for your drivers, bellhops, guides, housekeeping, etc. (These people work incredibly hard and depend on tips so make sure to bring cash.)
• Your travel insurance (never included)

Where can I find a list of travel agent FAM trips?

Great question! Here are a few places you can find FAM trips listed.

HAR's INDUSTRy calendar

We have a great list of FAM trips on HAR's free travel industry event calendar that you can check out.

Often times travel industry conferences in popular tourist destinations will offer pre/post-add-ons that allow you to experience the destination at a discounted rates.

FAM-SPEcific websites

Other online places to find travel agent FAMs are destination-specific websites like:

• MexicoFamTrips.com
• CaribbeanFamTrips.com
• JamaicaFamTrips.com

There are also a few websites that list travel agent FAM trips like :

• Famtrips.travel
• FAMrates.com (paid subscription)
• WanderfullyFammed , which are led by an advisor/photographer and part of the trip is that she provides all the marketing content for advisors to promote it during and after.

But here's another secret, the real travel agent FAM deals that are generously subsidized are not publicized. They are invite-only FAM trips or require you to apply, where the competition is stiff.

Travel Consortium + Host AgencY FAM TRIPS

Your host agency and/or consortium are one of the places where you can find the generously subsidized FAM trips.

Only members of their networks have access to these FAM trips and there may be sales or other requirements you need to meet. They may send out an email with the opportunity or they may reach out to advisors they know would be a good fit for it so that's another reason to cultivate those relationships with your host and consortium!

DESTINATIONS and vendors FAM TourS FOR TRAVEL AGENTS

Another place where you can find severely discounted travel agent FAM trips is through destinations and preferred suppliers like cruise lines, tour operators, destination management companies (DMCs), and resorts.

\When you sign up as an advisor with them that gets you into their database and you'll receive information on upcoming travel agent FAM opportunities.

These FAM trips may be emailed out to the entire database and you have to apply, or it may be that the organization reaches out individually to their ideal travel advisors. Again, build those relationships at travel industry events so you're top of mind. :)

How the heck can I get invited on a travel agent FAM trip?!?

Love your enthusiasm!

Let's back up a step because the first requirement is that you're a travel agent. If you aren't one but think it would be a cool career (it totally is), check out our article with more info on how to start your travel agency .

The next requirement hurdle is you'll need to be a producing advisor.

On rare occasions, new advisors without a history of sales can be invited on a travel agent FAM trip, but you'd have to show you have the potential to bring in sales. This is usually done by showing your network of friends/colleagues/clients as the target demographic for that particular FAM trip.

Another option for newbies is you can show that you are serious and focused on selling that particular brand/destination/trip type. Do this by reaching out to your BDM (business development manager) and writing up an in-depth sales plan on what you'll do to bring them sales.

Other than that, each FAM will have its own requirements which they'll communicate to you.

You now are fully educated on one of the best travel industry secrets... travel agent FAM trips! I hope you can experience one soon as they're amazing experiences. :)

If you're an advisor that landed on this article, I would LOVE to have you share any FAM experiences or advice in the comments below!

About the Author

Steph grew up in the travel industry. She worked with thousands of agents in her role as a former host agency director before leaving in 2012 to start HAR. She's insatiably curious, loves her pups Fennec and Orion, and -- in case you haven't noticed -- is pretty quirky and free-spirited.

If you’re looking for Steph, she leaves a trace where ever she goes! You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest as 'iamstephly'. 🙂 She doesn't do TikTok as no one would ever see her again.

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3 tips to stand out with the most memorable fam trips.

• January 29, 2021

• Fam trips as sales opportunity

In the tourism industry, a Fam trip is one of the biggest sales opportunities. As a tour operator, you have the potential to put your destination and your business on the map. The main aim of a Fam trip is to network, build relationships and to personally promote your tourism products.

Definition of a Fam trip

Fam is short for Familiarisation. A Fam trip is a complimentary or reduced-rate travel program for travel agents, tour operators and travel media. It’s designed to familiarise themselves with a specific destination or business. All this to experience the tourism product first-hand and to stimulate sale of travel.

Make a positive impression

Many destinations and tourism experiences are fantastic, but if the Fam trip experience is weak, the entire destination and experience will appear weak in the eyes of your guests. Always keep in mind that your Fam trip guests are well travelled, have high expectations and are requesting good hospitality. It will not be their first Fam trip. The Fam trip is your time to be memorable, so make sure to make a positive impression!

In this article

• Tip 1: Connection
• Tip 2: Curiosity
• Tip 3: Stand out

Virtual Fam trips

Top 3 tips for an epic fam trip.

To find out what makes the perfect Fam trip, we have conducted a survey with key industry leaders. We have found the top three things that are game changers in your fam trip experience.

1. Connection

The number one answer our surveyed leaders saw as a changemaker in a Fam trip is the “Who?”. Meaning who is conducting the Fam trip and can this person deliver and create real connections? Can they read verbal and non-verbal cues? Can they invoke excitement curiosity adding value to the overall experience?

“I felt the Fam trip was about me” – someone shared. Displaying your destination and tourism products is first priority, but should it be? This may sound strange, but your top priority should be building a connection with your Fam-guests. Only then you will be able to fully connect them to your destination and tourism products. Only then are you able to show its uniqueness and its potential!

2. Curiosity

When developing your Fam trip, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do we have in our destination that can spark curiosity?
• What can I teach my Fam-guests about our destination and tourism products?

Personal experience

Personally, I have travelled to many destinations. Many places stand out, but some places piqued my curiosity! When I was in Guatemala visiting a Mayan site, I looked down to the ground and saw an object wondering what it was. I thought: What’s that? What’s inside?

The guide quickly noticed my curiosity and picked up the nut, and asked: “Claudine, do you know what’s inside?” I replied, “some sort of nut?” He then shared that it was an almond. “Let’s see what’s inside.”, he said. He took a rock and hit the nut 3 times. He then said: “take a look”. He gave me the nut and asked me to open it up carefully. And there it was, an almond. My almond which I got to see, touch, smell, and taste. It was a full moment of discovery, and this story stays with me!

My curiosity was sparked, and I learned something new and delicious. What’s an everyday moment for you is a unique experience for a visitor. Always stay connected, looking for any opportunity to add value. Invoking moments of curiosity and surprise. You want your Fam-guests to be excited and share their experience passionately with their clients, your potential customers!

3. Stand out

What will you do differently to stand out and be remembered? My best example of a destination standing out is Grenada, an island in the Caribbean Sea. Having travelled extensively, I will never forget the way Grenadian culture and people stood out. I was invited to a local home to join in a traditional local meal called an “oil down”. A meal prepared with care with ingredients from their own garden. It was hands down the most epic dish around.

The experience was not just going to a home and eating a traditional meal. It was a discovery. An insight to their family, culture and lifestyle. For that time, I became part of the family and the island. Every single part of this experience drew me closer to the local culture. Creating a strong bond not only to the family and the experience, but to the destination. Grenada stood out!

In times of Covid-19 , physical Fam trips have been cancelled until further notice. As alternative, the Virtual Fam trip gained more interest. Virtual Fam trips allow invitees to learn more about the destination from their own homes via video. It’s a great temporary alternative for an actual Fam trip. It allows tour operators and destinations to stay in touch with their re-sellers while receiving feedback on their tourism products.

Top 3 tips for Virtual Fam trips

1. Bring the experience alive. You are behind a screen so the body language, the smile and the experience needs to be a bit more animated!

2. Communicate in an inclusive manner. Say things like “We are going to the museum” instead of ‘I will show you the museum”. Key words can make someone feel part of the journey, as if they are there with you!

3. Study your audience. Know what they like, dislike and what their interests are. Doing your homework will help you connect better!

Remember the top three game changers

Decide what kind of Fam trip you want to host and don’t forget the three game changers. Keep looking for opportunities to put your destination on the map and get ready. Before your next Fam trip, remember to focus on personal connections, creating curiosity and to stand out!

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Wow, these are great ideas! This could really ensure an amazing travel experience. How do I get connected with these types of providers?

Wow! Thanks for the message! Where are you located Amy? Reach out, I’m on LinkedIn: Claudine Pohl

Keep Shining, Claudine

Claudine Pohl

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What Is A FAM Trip And Why Are They Important?

“A FAM trip is a huge investment of time, money and personnel. Make sure that you’re giving it your all and you should definitely see results that match,” Nicole Amiel, Beattie Tartan.

We had the chance to chat with Nicole Amiel, Director – Eastern Canada at Beattie Tartan on the power of Media and FAM Trips in the Tourism industry. A familiarization trip, or FAM for short, is a trip designed for traditional media, social media influencers and bloggers to learn about a destination, a tourism operator, a hotel chain, or a tourism board, and sometimes, all of the above.  

“ But what makes a media tour or FAM (familiarization trip) a success? “

Glad you asked! In this Q&A, Nicole will guide you through the recipe for a successful FAM trip. This includes the strategy, process, and tactics used to drive significant earned media attention.

Throughout the year, RTO 9 invites media and hosts press trips in an effort to increase awareness of destinations and operators within the South Eastern Ontario region. Learn more here.

View the transcript.

“Nicole is a passionate communications professional with a proven track record in creating successful campaigns across digital and traditional channels, engaging media at both the local and national level. She has worked in public relations, marketing, communications and events in Montreal, Miami and Toronto for over a decade, gaining experience in all aspects of brand building. Whether as a publicist at boutique firms, an Internal Communications Specialist at the Aldo Group or as a project manager launching new brands, there’s one thing that she has always focused on: building culture and identity through information. Over her years in the industry, Nicole has worked with a range of clients in the fashion, travel, arts and entertainment, cannabis, cultural events and festivals, hospitality, F&B, tech, health and wellness, nightlife, charity/non-profit and design industries.”  [email protected]

What is a FAM Trip and Why Are They an Important PR Tool?

Have you ever heard of a FAM trip? You may be surprised to learn that it doesn’t have anything to do with a family vacation. FAM trips are actually short for familiarization trips , and they’re a great tool for promoting tourism locations and doing PR for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). 

We recently planned and executed a FAM trip to the South Canadian Rockies , a DMO that promotes the Crowsnest Pass, Pincher Creek and Castle regions in southern Alberta. Along with a group of stellar travel writers and influencers, some of our team members travelled down to the area to experience first-hand all of the amazing wonders the South Canadian Rockies has to offer. 

Photo courtesy of Karen Ung @playoutsidegal 

The goal of this project was to familiarize the travel writers  and influencers with the area and inspire them to write/post about their experience. The South Canadian Rockies is home to some of the most beautiful and quaint mountain towns, but it’s often overlooked as a travel destination by western Canadians, in part because of its off the beaten path nature.

Photo courtesy of Neil Zeller

We worked with Neil Zeller Photography  Tours to provide the attendees with a unique and educational photography  experience in the area. This benefitted attendees who were lo oking to learn more about photography from one of the industry’s best, while also capturing some incredible photo assets that we could purchase from the attendees as part of our project.

During the trip, we visited some of the area’s best restaurants to get an idea of the many culinary options available there. We also took part in one of the area’s most popular winter activities with a snowshoe tour with Uplift Adventures , a local guiding company, at beautiful Beauvais Lake Provincial Park.

We had an itinerary that we planned and provided the group beforehand, but we also showed flexibility for some activities of the trip to flow naturally and occasionally veer away from our original plans. This made for an authentic and unrushed experience for our attendees and allowed us to experience some photo opportunities and restaurants that we may not have otherwise enjoyed. Overall, the FAM trip we planned was a great success and we will continue to use this PR tool to promote our tourism clients at Worthington PR & Story . 

Are you a tourism destination organization looking to promote your area to a broader audience? We can help you every step of the way from planning, utilizing our relationships with influencers and media and executing a trip. Reach out to us at [email protected] today for more information about how we can help support your organization’s PR needs. 

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Familiarization Tours – What are they?

• September 4, 2015
• wellsgraytours

You may have heard of Familiarization Tours (FAM Tour is the industry abbreviation) and wondered what they are, who provides them and who are they for.

FAM Tours are hosted by travel destinations, restaurants and attractions to familiarize travel professionals with products and services that they feel will help the travel professional sell their destinations or services. FAM tours can be as close as a local restaurant or B & B in your community inviting the local Information Center staff or local travel agents to enjoy a meal or overnight stay. First hand experiences are much easier to sell.

FAM Trips are not usually free, but offered to travel professionals at a reduced rate. This ensures that travel expert is truly invested in learning about the destination or product. While this may sound like an ideal way to take a vacation, it is far from it. Destination FAM tours are jammed packed with hotel rooms, quick overview stops at attractions, dining experiences packaged into a short trip with long, long days. FAM tours are designed to provide the travel professional with a “snap shot” of the destination. The upside is that your travel professional will meet face to face with service providers and begin to build relationships with those they will work with. When booking your next holiday or tour, they will be able to recommend safe local transportation as well a personal perspective into your next adventure.

Wells Gray Tours utilizes FAM opportunities whenever possible to research new destinations. These FAM tours provide great benefits for you as the traveller. When researching a new destination it is so much easier to plan the itinerary with input from staff that has had firsthand experience. Having someone on the ground in a destination allows for a personal glimpse into cultural expectations, safety issues and transportation availability. Recently our staff has been busy; Darlene from our Vernon office and Sema from Victoria cruised on the Ocean Endeavor to Baffin Island and Greenland, Stephanie from Kamloops and Kerrie from Kelowna spent time in Savannah, Georgia and the Golden Isles, while Fraser and Shane are busy exploring cruise opportunities with Norwegian Cruise Lines.

On the Ocean Endeavor to Baffin Island and Greenland

The Golden Isles, Georgia

Tallinn, Estonia with Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Wells Gray Tours not only takes advantage of FAM tour offerings, but offers FAM tours to its employees on our tours to destinations that we travel to frequently. This ensures that all our staff stays well informed on areas we go to repeatedly, understand how we operate when out on tour and have a chance to meet and mingle with our guests in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. Wells Gray Tours provides the staff with additional time off to take FAMS.

You know you will be in good hands when you travel with Wells Gray Tours due to on our going commit to making sure we are well educated about the destinations we travel to.

Written by: Joan Niemeier

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Travel Agent FAM Trips: What is a FAM Trip?

Written by: Guest on April 16, 2018

There are a lot of perks to becoming a travel agent and one of them is FAM Trips. FAM Trip stands for “familiarization trip” and it is a trip exclusively for travel agents (and sometimes their guests!) that are provided by suppliers or travel operators. Seminars at Sea are similar to FAM trips, but they are offered by cruise lines and give agents the chance to experience the ships and sailing itineraries that they’ll be selling.

These trips are provided as a way for agents to gain an understanding of the benefits of different trips that they can sell to their clients.

When you’ve seen a resort or on a cruise for yourself, you can better help your clients understand what to expect. The more first-hand experience you have, the better you will be able to choose the perfect vacation for your clients based on their wants and needs .

KHM Travel Group agents participate in various FAM Trips and Seminars at Sea throughout the year. We have excellent relationships with many of the top preferred suppliers in the industry, and that allows our agents to get great deals and have wonderful experiences on FAM trips.

One of many benefits to becoming a travel agent, these “working trips” allow our agents to have fun, enjoyable and useful experiences at resorts and destinations across the country and around the world. When you go on a FAM Trip, you will return with the education and confidence you need to make new bookings! In fact, you can take photos and post them on your own social media accounts or share them directly with your clients to spark their desire to reach out to you about their next trip.

Another benefit to FAM trips and Seminars at Sea is that while you’re having fun, you also get the opportunity to network with other travel agents! While these trips are “working trips” there is usually time set aside for agents to relax and enjoy the pools, beaches, bars and other activities. Take advantage of the “down time” and mingle with fellow agents and discuss what has and hasn’t worked for their business. Make sure to exchange information and stay in contact. It’s a great way to extend your professional network!

Curious about what these trips are like? Check out our recaps from a few of our past FAM trips and Seminars at Sea:

KHM Travel Agents Experience Culture & Adventure on Azores FAM

Club Med FAM Highlights an Action-Packed, All-Inclusive Punta Cana Experience

Exploring the Western Caribbean on the Norwegian Getaway Seminar at Sea

Want to become a KHM travel agent? Contact us to learn more about this rewarding career, or easily get started online today .

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How FAM trips and event strategy can elevate your brand

We’re all guilty of it. One minute you’re aimlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed, killing time before your kid’s soccer practice wraps up or your next appointment starts, when suddenly something catches your eye. Maybe it’s a post of someone using a power drill which reminds you that you need to get going on that bathroom reno, new running shoes that you’re positive will finally give you the motivation you need to start running twice a week, or a picture of that resort in Baja you’ve been dying to stay at, like, forever. Whatever it is, it’s enough to prompt you to click the ‘buy’ button–and that’s exactly why influencer marketing and media coverage is so effective.

Whether your company is launching a new product or looking to showcase a destination, proven ways to generate excitement and awareness are by hosting a FAM trip or planning a brand activation.

What is a FAM trip?

Traditionally, a familiarization trip–commonly called a FAM trip or FAM–is when a destination or tourism brand hosts media, travel agents or suppliers for an experience, This could be something as simple as an afternoon hike highlighting offerings from a few providers capped off with a farm-to-table dinner, to a weeklong, all-expenses paid trip to a luxury resort in Thailand. The idea is that the resulting media coverage leads to more bookings, while agents on the supplier side are more knowledgeable about the products they’re pushing which can increase sales.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, and attending FAM trips is a quick and easy way to get insider access to a destination,” explains travel writer Jody Robbins , who goes on hosted trips multiple times a year to research upcoming articles. “A good FAM trip will not only familiarize you with the destination, but will uncover a new perspective.” 

Now that bloggers and influencers have developed so much klout and loyal audiences, FAMs are expanding to include this type of new media and trips are no longer just tourism focused. Forward-thinking companies are putting together customized brand activations which give influencers an opportunity to connect with and use their products, creating content they can then share organically with their followers.

“In the past, most companies would launch new products at trade shows and through press releases, which is somewhat effective but not very exciting,” says Aaron Sales, co-founder of Global Sessions which has worked with brands like Nike to support their brand influencer programs. “Today, consumers and media desire authentic experiences that allow them to fully understand and appreciate the product. When you feel a product in your own hands and can have a direct conversation with the designer or someone knowledgeable and passionate about the product, you immediately become an ambassador. It’s one thing to read a one-pager on the latest and greatest, but it’s completely different when you get to cast the rod from shore and hook into a 12 pound trout with the owner of the company.”

Nike brought in Global Sessions to develop the event strategy for a product launch , where they presented new apparel to a group of fashion bloggers, photographers and media from high-profile outlets like Vogue , HYPEBEAST and Gear Patrol. Global Sessions sourced a venue to put Nike’s ACG React Terra Gobe shoe to the test and provide an incredible backdrop to create content, as well as arrange transportation, meals, lodging and experiences. 

How to make a familiarization trip successful

Many companies that host FAM trips or influencer marketing events bring in a third-party agency to assist with things like the run of show and venue finding services, and benefit from their insider knowledge.

“Logistics and timing are hugely important factors in running a successful FAM tour,” says Kieron Weidner from First Nature Tours , which is a longtime partner of Global Sessions. His company works with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) like Travel Oregon and Brand USA by providing professional guides, luxury transportation and expert insight into each area. 

“Things often take longer than anticipated, and it’s important to know the destinations and attractions well enough to plan accordingly. Also, having relationships in place with key partners can assist in hosting the group, and providing the kind of experience that will really sell the participants on the destination.”

On the media side, journalists appreciate a bit of flexibility and free time built into schedules to give them time to properly explore based on their interests.

“One of the best FAM trips I was on offered two different half-day blocks we could choose from,” Robbins recalls. “One block was culinary, the other family travel, another outdoor adventure, etcetera. Everyone split into different groups and got the [story] angles they needed.”

She adds that including a unique experience is also appreciated, as well as getting an opportunity to meet the locals.

“One example is when I did a UK FAM that took us into Oxfordshire and Highclere House, AKA Downton Abbey. Anyone can tour Highclere House, but this was memorable for a few reasons: it was timely because the movie was coming out in a few months, and it was bucket list-worthy. Sure, you can do it on your own, but that takes some effort and our FAM timed it just right with not only a tour and tea, but an evening performance where we could wander through the castle at will. 

“Our FAM had organized a tea with Lady Carnarvon, the mistress of the house. Having unhurried time with her was not only invaluable for my story, but is something I’ll never forget.” 

What to avoid when planning FAM tours

The most important thing to remember when planning a media visit or influencer marketing event is that one size does not fit all . Many organizers are guilty of cramming in too many different activities to try and showcase everything, which means participants barely have enough time to properly experience it, never mind actually create content. It’s almost always better to spend more time at fewer places.

“It’s important to balance the learning and site inspections with time to truly relax and enjoy the destination, and [travel advisors] won’t want to return with a group if they don’t enjoy their overall experience,” Weidner says. 

He suggests setting accurate expectations for the participants well in advance, and always calling ahead to keep partners updated with arrival time and group size to ensure the experience moves smoothly, Most importantly, be informed.

“Know the answers to the questions that your participants need to know.”

Break the Ice Media & Travel Alliance Partners have merged to offer you more as Travel Alliance Partnership.

4 Tips for a Successful FAM Tour

In the wonderful and exciting world of tourism marketing, various tactics are used to market a destination. One of these is hosting a familiarization tour, otherwise known as a FAM tour or just simply FAMs. Hosting a successful FAM tour is a great tactic for driving sales and increasing motorcoach business in a destination. The purpose of a FAM tour is to invite travel trade professionals to learn first-hand what an area has to offer. Participating tourism professionals may include group tour operators, group tour leaders, tourism partners, and travel agents ( travel writers also go on one-off or group FAMs). When a tour professional experiences something first-hand, they become more educated and more excited about the experience. This makes it easier to sell the destination to their own customers.

FAMs engage tourism stakeholders, such as lodging, restaurants and attractions, and give them a chance to meet the FAM participants. There are different types of FAMs you can offer for your destination. Larger FAMs require collaboration with several Destination Marketing Organizations ( DMOs ) across multiple counties. Others have just one county or smaller destination where there is only one DMO hosting the FAM. Regardless of the scope and size of a FAM tour, here are 4 tips to ensure its success.

1. Educate everyone involved on how they will benefit from a FAM tour .

This goes for both the stakeholders and the FAM participants.

Stakeholders need to understand that this is a marketing opportunity. As such, stakeholders agree to offer their services and/or products complimentary. They should understand they are not donating goods and services! This is a fantastic marketing opportunity to showcase their business.

FAM participants need to understand that as much fun as FAM tours are, everyone is still working. They are only going to get a sample of products and services. They should not expect to spend a lot of time at one location. There is much to do and see and they are expected to take part in every opportunity offered.  

2. Communication is key for a successful familiarization tour.

FAMs typically have a very tight schedule, and good communication  ensures a successful tour for everyone. Both stakeholders and participants should be fully versed in how much time they have to spend at each location.

There are also logistical items. All stakeholders should provide contact names, immediate contact numbers, parking instructions, etc. The FAM organizer needs to notify each stakeholder when the group is en route so they can be prepared for the group’s arrival.

Each participant needs the itinerary before the start of the FAM and needs to provide their contact information as well as an emergency contact. As a requirement of participation, they need to share with the DMO host(s) what they do and why they have an interest in participating on the FAM.

3. Treat your FAM guests as VIPs.

Roll out the red carpet! Participants will remember what went wrong before they remember what went right. Travel professionals sell destinations. They want to feel 100% confident their customers will have a great experience. They have relationships to foster and protect. If they are treated well, they will understand and feel confident that their customers will experience the same thing and be willing to put their name and reputation out there to promote your area.

4. R emember to have fun during a FAM tour.

Don’t forget, this is tourism! It’s about having a good time! Even though this is a professional situation, selling a destination is fun and every destination is sellable . People are still people and will relate best and relax more when stress is low. No matter if things go as planned or not, what the group will remember most is if they had an enjoyable experience, and that’s what makes a successful FAM tour.

Rhonda Carges

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How to Run a FAM Trip for the Chinese Market

Familiarization trips, or fam trips, are one of the best ways to educate the chinese travel trade, media, and influencers. these are our 16 top tips for organizing and running both traditional and virtual fam trips for the chinese market..

Familiarization trips, or FAM trips, are one of the best ways to educate the Chinese travel trade, media, and influencers about a destination, by inviting them to visit. Traditional FAM trips are physical visits to a destination, but FAM trips can also be run virtually as a preview to or substitute for in-person travel. In this article, we’ll share 16 top tips for organizing and running both traditional and virtual FAM trips for the Chinese market.

These trips are generally organized by NTOs or DMOs, but they can involve a number of local operators and suppliers. Organizers need to work with a local Chinese agency to help select the agents, KOLs, or media who will go on the FAM trip and to coordinate it on the ground – this goes for both traditional and virtual FAMs.

12 tips for running a successful in-person FAM trip:

1) For the travel industry, invite the product manager, or the manager responsible for your geographical region or niche area. Identify and invite the most active and passionate agents for your product, especially in a specialized field.

2) Make the trip very attractive to them; travel agents are busy professionals and may end up sending out lower-ranking employees.

3) Cover all their costs, including getting to the airport/internal flights.

4) Do not mix agents from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or other Asian countries, and mainland China in the same group if possible.

5) Do not mix travel agents and media/influencers if possible.

6) Get the best Chinese-speaking guide, or if unavailable, a good interpreter to travel with the group.

7) Find out what kind of food they like – depending on where they are from in China, they may like more spicy, sweet, or salty foods. They may be more into noodles and bread, or rice. While part of the FAM trip should involve trying local foods, you’ll want to make sure the guests are comfortable. Click here to learn more about Chinese food preferences abroad .

8) Discuss with them each day informally what they like, what they don’t like, and how they think it will sell in China.

9) Prepare Chinese-language content on the main attractions and places they visit, take lots of pictures of them and send to them after the trip, or via WeChat immediately (they will share photos with their colleagues and friends in China).

10) Prepare some small surprises – souvenirs, fruit, sweets, etc. Ask the hotel to upgrade or offer some extras in the hotel that were not in the plan.

11) Understand who is more senior (respect age and job seniority) in the group and give them priority in seating and checking in to hotels.

12) Take group pictures in major locations, including yourself and your team – print them and give as a memento at the end of the trip. A book format or framed photo will be appreciated.

Virtual FAM trips

Virtual FAMs have emerged from the pandemic era, using a format similar to travel live streaming to take travel agents around the world in a time of complicated travel restrictions. Unlike a live stream, the FAM trip content is edited, so it’s more condensed and professional – viewers have the feeling of being in the destination, but are also able to cover a lot of ground quickly.

Although “visiting” a destination through one’s phone is obviously not the same thing as going in person, a virtual FAM has distinct advantages that will make it a valuable B2B marketing tool after pandemic-related travel restrictions have been relaxed. A virtual model means that there is no limit on the number of attendees, and no logistics of international travel to arrange. With a playback option after the original broadcast, agents can also join on their own time, even months afterwards.

A virtual FAM can also be treated as an appetizer for a later in-person FAM. Virtual FAMs run by Dragon Trail have been incorporated into virtual roadshows that include online exhibitions and one-on-one meetings between overseas suppliers and Chinese buyers.  These events are all run through a WeChat mini-program that provides extensive data reporting, so it’s easy to see which travel agents are most engaged and would be likely to give you the biggest ROI if you did invite them for a real trip later on.

Watch a highlights video of our March 2022 virtual FAM for South African Tourism

4 tips for running a successful virtual FAM:

1) You’ll need a minimum of 40 days to organize a good quality virtual FAM trip. If you can, two months of preparation time is ideal. The biggest task for a virtual FAM is planning, including selecting hosts and suppliers, working out storylines, and deciding what kinds of footage will need to be shot. For our two-hour March 2022 FAM trip for South African Tourism, the video shooting took around two or three days for each guide, but the editing takes a bit longer: four or five days per guide.

2) Selecting the right guides is crucial. They must be fluent Chinese speakers, who have a good presence on camera, and be well matched to the style of activity they are presenting. Those who are already experienced in vlogging and have their own camera crew are preferable, since organizers can check their work and decide easily what they are best suited to presenting – for example, hotel properties or outdoor activities. Guides should already be very familiar with the destination in order to understand which highlights to present to the audience, and they should ideally have strong local networks.

3) Especially during the time of COVID, virtual FAMs are a great way to show rather than tell what a destination does to ensure visitor safety. Including details about pandemic prevention measures such as mask-wearing or contactless service will help travel agents to see for themselves what visiting a foreign destination is like. At the same time, the Chinese tourism market has always been highly safety-conscious, and virtual FAMs provide a good opportunity to introduce other safety-related details – for example, the safety measures taken before a helicopter ride such as weighing any carry-on bags.

4) As well as personal invitations sent to top travel agents/buyers, you can promote your virtual FAM more widely to the Chinese travel trade through your trade-focused WeChat account and B2B chat groups (if you have them). If you’re running your virtual FAM trip together with Dragon Trail, we can help to advertise it through our own B2B media channel, official travel trade WeChat accounts and groups, and email database.

Want to learn more about running a virtual FAM trip for the Chinese market? Watch our March 2022 webinar with South African Tourism to go behind the scenes at their virtual FAM Read the case study of our September 2021 virtual FAMs with South African Tourism Read the case study of our 2021 online roadshow and virtual FAMs with the Singapore Tourism Board Contact us directly to get started with your own virtual FAM for the Chinese market.

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Diversity Dictionary: What is a fam trip?

Many hotels, tours and cruise lines offer discounted rates to travel agents so that they can experience what a traveller would get .  Travel and accommodation suppliers and tour operators embrace the opportunity to raise awareness of their services and provide the best portrait of their business . They should aim to answer any and every question a travel agent may have, so that this information makes its way to potential new customers !

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Tight races define men’s Olympic Golf Ranking 100 days out from competition

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While Scottie Scheffler has been the dominant force across men’s golf in the spring of 2024 – bolstered by wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, THE PLAYERS Championship, the Masters Tournament and, most recently, the RBC Heritage – a number of storylines have emerged as the calendar creeps towards the 2024 Paris Olympics. Tuesday, April 23, marked the 100-day mark from the start of the men’s golf competition, but perhaps more immediately, the June 17 qualification deadline for the men’s golf competition is less than two months away.

With 60 spots up for grabs in the men’s competition, a finite number of opportunities remain for players to maintain their status inside the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR) or breach the top 60.

This week’s movement inside the top 60 included Matti Schmid edging countryman Yannik Paul for Germany’s second position, alongside Stephan Jaeger, who recently solidified his spot with a win at the Texas Children’s Houston Open on the PGA TOUR. Schmid and Paul are not the only two countrymen battling for a position: Close races exist for several other countries, including Japan, Canada, South Korea, Denmark and Spain. In the past month, Byeong Hun An has overtaken Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim for the second position representing South Korea (alongside Tom Kim), while Japan’s Keita Nakajima has edged ahead of Ryo Hisatsune after a win at the Hero Indian Open at the end of March.

Beyond competitions between players from individual countries, there is a top-60 “bubble” that several players are jostling around: This week, Norway’s Kris Ventura surpassed Finland’s Kalle Samooja after a top-five finish on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Countries can only have more than two representatives if they have more than two within the top 15 of the OGR (with a limit of four). As currently constructed, the United States (four) is the only country projected to include more than two representatives in the men’s competition.

With less than two months until the field is finalized, it’s officially crunch time for those hoping to represent their country on the grandest stage.

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How Do We Know What Animals Are Really Feeling?

Animal-welfare science tries to get inside the minds of a huge range of species — in order to help improve their lives.

Credit... Photo Illustration by Zachary Scott

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By Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

Bill Wasik is the magazine’s editorial director and Monica Murphy is a veterinarian and writer.

• April 23, 2024

What makes a desert tortoise happy? Before you answer, we should be more specific: We’re talking about a Sonoran desert tortoise, one of a few species of drab, stocky tortoises native to North America’s most arid landscapes. Adapted to the rocky crevices that striate the hills from western Arizona to northern Mexico, this long-lived reptile impassively plods its range, browsing wildflowers, scrub grasses and cactus paddles during the hours when it’s not sheltering from the brutal heat or bitter cold. Sonoran desert tortoises evolved to thrive in an environment so different from what humans find comfortable that we can rarely hope to encounter one during our necessarily short forays — under brimmed hats and layers of sunblock, carrying liters of water and guided by GPS — into their native habitat.

Listen to this article, read by Gabra Zackman

This past November, in a large, carpeted banquet room on the University of Wisconsin’s River Falls campus, hundreds of undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students silently considered the lived experience of a Sonoran desert tortoise. Perhaps nine in 10 of the participants were women, reflecting the current demographics of students drawn to veterinary medicine and other animal-related fields. From 23 universities in the United States and Canada, and one in the Netherlands, they had traveled here to compete in an unusual test of empathy with a wide range of creatures: the Animal Welfare Assessment Contest.

That morning in the banquet room, the academics and experts who organize the contest (under the sponsorship of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the nation’s primary professional society for vets) laid out three different fictional scenarios, each one involving a binary choice: Which animals are better off? One scenario involved groups of laying hens in two different facilities, a family farm versus a more corporate affair. Another involved bison being raised for meat, some in a smaller, more managed operation and others ranging more widely with less hands-on human contact.

Then there were the tortoises. On screens along the room’s outer edge, a series of projected slides laid out two different settings: one, a desert museum exhibiting seven Sonoran specimens together in a large, naturalistically barren outdoor enclosure; the other, a suburban zoo housing a group of four tortoises, segregated by sex, in small indoor and outdoor pens furnished with a variety of tortoise toys and enticements. Into the slides had been packed an exhausting array of detail about the care provided for the tortoises in each facility. Only contestants who had prepared thoroughly for the competition — by researching the nutritional, environmental, social and medical needs of the species in question — would be able to determine which was doing a better job.

“Animal welfare” is sometimes misused as a synonym for “animal rights,” but in practice the two worldviews can sometimes be at cross purposes. From an animal rights perspective, nearly every human use of animals is morally suspect, but animal-welfare thinkers take it as a given that animals of all kinds do exist in human care, for better or worse, and focus on how to treat them as well as possible. In the past half century, an interdisciplinary group of academics, working across veterinary medicine and other animal-focused fields, have been trying to codify what we know about animal care in a body of research referred to as “animal-welfare science.”

The research has unlocked riddles about animal behavior, spurred changes in how livestock are treated and even brought about some advances in how we care for our pets: Studies of domestic cats, for example, have found that “puzzle feeders,” which slow consumption and increase mental and physical effort while eating, can improve their health and even make them friendlier. The discipline has begun to inform policy too, including requirements for scientists receiving federal grants for their animal-based research, regulations governing transport and slaughter of livestock, accreditation standards for zoos and aquariums and guidelines for veterinarians performing euthanasia.

Contest organizers hope to help their students, who might someday go into a range of animal-related jobs — not just as vets but in agribusiness, conservation, government and more — employ data and research to improve every aspect of animal well-being. Americans own an estimated 150 million dogs and cats, and our policies and consumption patterns determine how hundreds of millions of creatures from countless other species will live and die. The Animal Welfare Assessment Contest tries to introduce students to that enormous collective responsibility, and to the complexity of figuring out what each of these animals needs, especially when — as in the case of reptiles living in a shell — their outlook differs radically from our own.

The effort to improve the lives of America’s animals began more than 150 years ago. As it happens, a hundred or so turtles figured in one of the most important events in the early history of animal activism in America. It was May 1866 — the heyday of turtle soup, a dish so beloved at the time that restaurants in New York would take out newspaper ads, or even maintain special outdoor signage, declaring the hour at which the day’s batch would be ready. And so this group of unlucky sea turtles, after being captured by hunters in Florida, was brought to New York upside down on a schooner. To further immobilize them, holes were pierced through their fins with cords run through them.

The turtles would have assumed a tranquil, passive demeanor under such conditions, perhaps making it possible for the ship’s crew to believe that the creatures weren’t suffering. But there is every reason to believe they were. Evolution has equipped the marine turtle for a life afloat, with a large lung capacity filling the space beneath the shell, to enable long dives. When the turtles were on their backs, the weight of their organs would have put pressure on these lungs, forcing their breathing to become deliberate and deep.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals started up the month before. Its president and founder, a Manhattan shipbuilding heir named Henry Bergh, spent its early weeks focusing on domestic species — above all, horses, the rough treatment of which in 19th-century streets was the main inspiration for his activism. But when he became aware of these suffering sea turtles for sale at Fulton Market, he decided to extend his campaign to a wildlife species that then barely rated more consideration than a cockroach, if not a cabbage.

Bergh made a case that the infliction of prolonged pain and distress upon sea turtles bound for the soup pot was illegal as well as immoral. As with other “mute servants of mankind” providing labor, locomotion, meat or milk to human beings, the turtle was entitled to be treated with compassion. But when Bergh hauled the ship’s captain in front of a judge, the defense argued (successfully!) that turtles were not even “animals,” but rather a form of fish, and thereby did not qualify under the new animal-cruelty law that Bergh succeeded in passing earlier that year.

Still, the case became a media sensation — and signaled to New Yorkers that Bergh’s campaign on behalf of animals was going to force them to account for the suffering of all animals, not just the ones they already chose to care about.

It’s perhaps no accident that Bergh turned to activism after a failed career as a dramatist. There’s something irreducibly imaginative in considering questions of animal welfare, regardless of how much science we marshal to back up our conclusions. George Angell of Boston, his fellow titan of that founding generation of animal advocates, pirated a 13-year-old British novel called “Black Beauty” and turned it into one of the century’s best-selling books, touting it as “the ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of the Horse” — though its real innovation was its use of an animal as a first-person narrator, thrusting readers into a working horse’s perspective and forcing them to contemplate how the equines all around them might see the world differently.

But how far does imagination really get us? The philosopher Thomas Nagel famously explored this problem in an essay called “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” which took up that question only to dramatize the impossibility of answering it to anyone’s satisfaction. “It will not help,” he wrote, “to try to imagine that one has webbing on one’s arms, which enables one to fly around at dusk and dawn catching insects in one’s mouth; that one has very poor vision, and perceives the surrounding world by a system of reflected high-frequency sound signals; and that one spends the day hanging upside down by one’s feet in an attic. Insofar as I can imagine this (which is not very far), it tells me only what it would be like for me to behave as a bat behaves.”

In the case of chelonians like turtles — and their encarapaced brethren, the tortoises — we may know even less about how they experience the world than we do about bats. Take their vision, for example: Among those species that have been studied, scientists have found evidence of broad-spectrum color vision, sometimes including ultraviolet wavelengths invisible to the human eye. And while chelonians can see well beyond their pointed beaks, where edible vegetation or predators may await notice, their brains process these visual signals slowly — a quality of certain animal brains that might, some experts have theorized, result in a sped-up perception of time. (In chelonian eyes, do grasses wave frenetically in the breeze and clouds race across the sky?)

Next to vision, smell is probably the sense turtles and tortoises rely upon most. Their sensitive nasal epithelium, distributed between two chambers, can detect odors diffused in a warm desert breeze or dissolved in a cold ocean current. Chelonian ears are where you’d expect them to be, but buried beneath their scaled reptilian skin. They hear well at low frequencies, even if they don’t register the high notes of twittering birds, humming mosquitoes or the whistling wind. Some chelonians seem to have the power of magnetoreception, which means that somewhere in their anatomy — perhaps their eyes, or their nervous systems, or elsewhere — there are chemicals or structures that allow them to sense the earth’s geomagnetic field and navigate by it.

The chelonian sense of touch presents fewer mysteries. Specialized receptors in the skin and on the shell detect mechanical, temperature and pain stimuli and send messages to the nervous system — just as they do in humans and a wide variety of other species. Recognition of pain, in particular, is considered a primordial sense, essential to the survival of animals on every limb of the evolutionary tree. But even here, there are differences separating species: What does the nervous system do with signals from its nociceptors? Does the desert tortoise withdraw its foot from the scorpion’s tail only reflexively, or does it consciously register the pain of the sting? What suffering does a turtle endure when its shell is struck by the sharp edges of a boat propeller?

As Nagel argued, there is no way to meaningfully narrow the gulch in understanding that exists around “what it is like to be” such a creature. The strategy of animal-welfare science is to patiently use what we can observe about these other kinds of minds — what they choose to eat and to do, how they interact with their environments, how they respond to certain forms of treatment — looking for objective cues to show experts what imagination cannot.

Upstairs from the banquet hall, student competitors nervously milled around carpeted corridors. One by one they were called into conference rooms to face a judge, who sat at a table beside a digital chronograph. In one room, a neatly dressed young woman in owlish glasses took a breath as the display began counting up hundredths of seconds in bright red digits. Catherine LeBlond, a second-year student at Atlantic Veterinary College at Canada’s University of Prince Edward Island, began her presentation about the bison scenario.

She was allowed to refer only to a single 3-by-5 index card, which she had packed with information based on a “summary sheet” of takeaways that she and her teammates worked up together, with key phrases emphasized and sources cited, all of it broken down by category: social behavior (“Bison are a very social species with strong matriarchal divisions”), handling guidelines (“Prods should not be used to move bison unless safety is an issue”), facility design (“Ensure that there is a sufficient number of gates within facilities to slow the animals”), euthanasia (“The recommended euthanasia method of a bison is gunshot”) and more.

LeBlond began by declaring her choice: The wilder facility provided a more humane environment for its animals. She felt it was helping bison “live a more natural life”: The more spacious grounds would support wallowing behavior, she reasoned, and allow the animals to choose their social grouping, an important policy given bisons’ strong sense of social structure. She also praised the operation for enabling bison to avoid “aversive life events,” by using drones, rather than ranchers on horseback, to monitor the animals in the field, and also by slaughtering the animals on-site to avoid the distress they experience in transport. As she ran through her presentation, she took care to hit two important rhetorical notes that judges look for: “granting” some areas in which the other institution excelled and offering positive advice about how it might improve.

One way to think about her reasoning is through the lens of “the five freedoms,” a rubric that animal-welfare thinkers have long embraced to consider all the different obligations that humans have to the animals in their care. They are: 1. the freedom from hunger and thirst; 2. the freedom from discomfort; 3. the freedom from pain, injury or disease; 4. the freedom to express normal behavior; and 5. the freedom from fear and distress. In fact, it was arguably the articulation of these five freedoms — in the Brambell Report, a document put out by a British government committee in 1965 to assess the welfare conditions of the nation’s livestock — that inaugurated the whole field of animal-welfare science.

What made this list of “freedoms” so influential, in retrospect, was that it created a context for other, more targeted thinking about how a species might experience each freedom or its violation. What sort of environment will offer “freedom from discomfort” to a beef steer, on the one hand, and a freedom “to express normal behavior” on the other? Trying to answer such questions in a rigorous way involves considerations of veterinary medicine but also of evolutionary history, behavioral observation, physiology (scientists have begun using proxies like cortisol levels as an indication of animal stress), neuroscience and more.

In her bison presentation, by citing “a more natural life” and avoiding “aversive life events,” LeBlond was emphasizing Freedoms 4 and 5, the freedom to express normal behavior and the freedom from distress. In the scenario about tortoises, though, Freedoms 4 and 5 seemed to be at odds. When LeBlond addressed the judge for that category, she awarded the edge to the zoo — weighing its better health outcomes and stimulating enrichments over the more naturalistic setting at the museum. She zeroed in on the zoo’s visitor program, which gave the tortoises a novel method of choosing whether or not they wanted to interact with humans: Staff put out a transport crate, and over the course of 20 minutes, tortoises could decide to climb into the crate to be taken to the human guests, and later receive a special biscuit for their service.

And she linked this to a behavioral difference, illustrated by a set of charts comparing how readily each set of tortoises moved toward a “novel object” (like an enrichment toy) or a “novel person” in their midst. The numbers showed that the zoo’s tortoises were far more drawn to interactions with people. “This indicates that they have less fear of humans,” LeBlond pointed out, “which could be because they are given a choice about whether or not they get to participate in educational programs, and those that do are positively reinforced with high-value rewards.”

Most of the students followed a similar logic and chose the zoo. The judges, however, disagreed. As one of them explained later at the awards ceremony — at which LeBlond took second place among vet students — the facility may have seemed to be offering their tortoises a consensual choice, but it was more accurate to see it as heavy-handed operant conditioning, which lured them into submitting to human contact with the promise of a biscuit. In scenarios involving domestic animals, a documented comfort around humans is a sign of positive treatment, but when it comes to wild animals, the goal is the opposite: to acclimate them as little to human contact as possible. Another way of putting it is this: Biscuits might make a desert tortoise “happy,” insofar as we can even imagine what that means, but happiness isn’t ultimately what humane treatment is about.

Each year at the contest, competitors are asked to perform one “live” assessment: a situation with real animals in it. This time, the species of choice was the laboratory rat. We joined Kurt Vogel, head of the Animal Welfare Lab at University of Wisconsin-River Falls, on a tour of the scenario that he and a colleague, Brian Greco, had constructed in a warren of rooms a few buildings over from the competition site.

They had brought a great deal of brio to the task. In the first room, where several rats snoozed in containers, Vogel and Greco had left a panoply of welfare infractions for eagle-eyed students to find. One cage was missing a water bottle, while others housed only a single rat, a violation of best practices (rats prefer to be housed in groups). Feed bags sat on the floor with detritus all around, and a note in a lab journal indicated that pest rodents had been observed snacking on it.

In subsequent rooms, the horrors became more baroque. A euthanasia chamber had the wrong size lid on it, and a nearby journal described a rat escaping in the middle of its extermination. Paperwork in an office laid out the nature of the study being performed, which involved prolonged deprivation of food and water, forced swimming and exposure to wet bedding. Diagrams showed that the rats’ brains were being studied through physical implants, and students could see that the operating room was a nightmare, littered with unsterile implements and the researchers’ food trash (the remnants of Vogel’s bagel sandwich, deliberately left behind). None of the abuse was real — Vogel and Greco were even taking care to cycle the rats in and out of the fake scenario, in order to avoid undue stress from the parade of students who came through taking notes.

Happiness isn’t ultimately what humane treatment is about.

Rodents did not always play the role in labs that they do today. In the late 19th century, experiments were carried out on a whole host of species, including a high proportion of dogs — a fact that animal-welfare activists publicized to turn the “vivisection” debate into a political issue, to the point that even some prominent doctors became galvanized to restrict or ban the practice. In the 20th century, as research shifted to carefully bred rats and mice, optimized for predictability and uniformity, animal experimentation receded as an issue in the public discourse. Today animal-welfare advocates struggle to motivate their base on the matter of rodents: the Humane Society’s website illustrates its section on “Taking Suffering Out of Science” (which sits at the very end in its list of the group’s current “fights”) with a picture of a beagle in a cage, despite the fact that roughly 95 percent of all lab mammals are now rats or mice.

Lab rodents are maybe the most vivid example of a species whose suffering is hard to know how to weigh against the benefits it provides us. Studies using rat and mouse models have sought to answer basic scientific questions across diverse fields of inquiry: psychology, physiology, pathology, genetics. Look into any new advance in human health care, and you’re likely to find that it’s built on years of experimentation that consumed the lives of literally thousands of rodents. We may now be on the cusp of innovations that could allow that toll to be radically reduced — by essentially replacing animal models with some combination of virtual simulations and lab-grown tissue and organs — but it’s hard to imagine a world anytime soon where human patients would be subject to therapies that have never been tested on hundreds of animals. No one even reliably counts how many rodents are killed in U.S. labs every year, but the estimates range from 10 million up to more than 100 million.

This question of scale especially haunts the problem of livestock, which is an area where many of the contest’s student competitors will eventually find jobs. America is currently home to roughly 87 million cattle and 75 million pigs: populations that exceed those of dogs and cats in scale, but the welfare of which commands so much less of our moral attention.

When the practice of centralized, industrialized livestock management began in earnest after the Civil War, the treatment of the animals, especially during slaughter, could be barbaric. Pigs were simply hoisted up and their throats cut, and after some point were assumed to be dead enough to dump into boiling water so that the sharp bristles on their skin could be scraped away. There was little doubt that some of them were still conscious at the point that they were plunged into the water, as was reported in a broad exposé in 1880 by The Chicago Tribune: “Not infrequently,” the reporter noted, “a hog reaches the scalding-tub before life is extinct; in fact, they sometimes are very full of life when they reach the point whence they are dumped into the seething tub.”

After 1906, when Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” exposed the industry’s unsanitary practices, a series of reforms did lead to significant improvements in the lives and deaths of American livestock. Thanks to the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, federal law now requires that animals be “rendered insensible to pain” before the act of killing; with pigs, this is generally done either with electrocution or by suffocation in a carbon-dioxide chamber, while with cattle, the method of choice is the captive-bolt gun. And since the 1970s, animal-welfare science has led to some considerable reforms. Perhaps the most transformational work has been done by Temple Grandin, the animal behaviorist whose research into how food animals experience and respond to their environment — particularly during transport and slaughter — has changed the way that meat and dairy producers operate.

Still, despite years of promises to end the practice, many sows are still kept almost permanently in 7-feet-by-2-feet “gestation crates,” too small to turn around in. And the rise of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has doomed millions of pigs, cattle and chickens to lives spent cheek to jowl in the stench of their own waste — waste that also threatens the health of nearby communities and ecosystems.

At the contest, many attendees were excited about the gains that artificial intelligence could bring to the animal-welfare field. Pilot studies have indeed shown great promise: For example, with A.I. assistance, 24-hour video surveillance can help pinpoint sick or injured animals much more quickly so they can be pulled out for veterinary care. Last year, a group of European researchers announced that based on 7,000 recordings of more than 400 pigs, they had made significant progress in understanding the meaning of their grunts. “By training an algorithm to recognize these sounds, we can classify 92 percent of the calls to the correct emotion,” one of the scientists remarked.

That well may be, but given what we know about pigs — specifically, their remarkable intelligence, which rivals (if not exceeds) that of a dog, to the point that a group of scientists recently trained some to play video games — there is no amount of A.I.-driven progress that can reconcile their short, crowded life as an American industrial food animal with any definition of what a “good” life looks like for such brainy creatures, all 75 million of them.

The laying hen, among the four species considered at the contest, is the one that lives among us in the largest numbers: There are an estimated 308 million of them in the United States alone, or nine for every 10 Americans. In a backyard flock, these hens could be expected to live six to eight years, but a vast majority of them toil in industrial operations that will slaughter them after only two to three years, once their productivity (six eggs a week) declines — and chickens, notably, are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. Poor air quality, soiled litter, nutritional stress and conflict with other chickens can contribute to dietary deficiencies, infectious diseases, egg-laying complications, self-mutilation, even cannibalism. And even in the best laying-hen operations, including the “cage-free” ones imagined in the contest scenario, these are short lives spent under 16 hours a day of artificial lighting in extremely close quarters with other birds.

More than in the other scenarios, the organizers had made the laying-hen choice a straightforward one. The corporate farm offered fewer amenities for the birds, which were also observed rarely to use the dirt-floored, plastic-covered “veranda” that was supposed to serve as a respite from their long hours laying in the aviary. The more commodious verandas of the family farm, covered with synthetic grass, proved more popular with their chickens, and in warm weather, its birds made use of a screened “garden” as well.

In her presentation, Catherine LeBlond correctly picked the family farm, for many of the same reasons that the judges did. Again, she “granted” some positive qualities of the corporate farm and offered it some advice — reflecting, after all, the values of the veterinary profession that she was training to enter, a field that takes on the advising of everyone who has animals in their care, not only the most conscientious.

Even so, at the very end, LeBlond briefly stepped back to ask a true ethical question, one that troubled the entire premise of a multibillion-dollar global industry: “whether or not it is ethical to keep these hens for the sole purpose of egg-laying, only to have them slaughtered at the end.” Among the scores of students we watched over the course of a weekend, LeBlond and her teammates from the Atlantic Veterinary College were the only ones who, in the final seconds of their talks, raised deep questions about the scenario’s entire premise — about whether, in the end, these fictional animals should have been put in these fictional situations in the first place.

It was a question that the judges of the Animal Welfare Assessment Contest had no doubt considered, but it also was one that seemed to lie outside the contest’s purview: In its either-or structure, the contest is helping train future professionals how to improve, rather than remove, the ties that bind animals into human society. Unless the day arrives when there is no need for laboratory rats, or poultry barns, or facilities to house desert tortoises and other captive wildlife, the animals of North America will be in the hands of veterinarians and animal scientists like LeBlond and her classmates, to help shape their situations the very best way they can.

Parts of this article are adapted from “Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals,” by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, published this month by Knopf.

Read by Gabra Zackman

Narration produced by Krish Seenivasan and Emma Kehlbeck

Engineered by Lance Neal

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Baseball boosted Japanese Americans during internment. A field in the desert may retell the story.

Japanese americans were forced into internment camps and lost everything during the war. but baseball became a form of expression..

In a desolate valley of Southern California’s high desert, an act of restoration is unfolding that befits the resolve of the intended honorees.

With every prickly chunk of cleared tumbleweed, every smoothing of soil, every commitment of time and materials and resources, baseball is getting closer to a return to Manzanar , one of 10 internment camps where Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated during World War II.

It remains one of the USA’s national shames : More than 120,000 of its citizens ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sell their belongings, abandon their homes and report to 10 camps spread almost exclusively throughout grim and remote locales in the American West between 1942 and 1945, as World War II raged on two fronts.

For the oppressors, it’s a black mark in history perhaps not equal but akin to the removal of native peoples, slavery and Jim Crow laws, which were still decades from eradication.

And for the oppressed, it remains a shameful subject for which many are reluctant to discuss.

MLB SALARIES: Baseball's top 25 highest-paid players in 2024

Yet it was baseball that offered both a proving ground and a modicum of dignity for citizens detained in camps.

And it is baseball that organizers hope sparks a renewed conversation around this era.

“We are reenacting,” says Dan Kwong, a performance artist and longtime baseball player whose mother was interned at Manzanar, “a piece of our history.”

Kwong, a 69-year-old Santa Monica resident, has volunteered at Manzanar since 2009, and answered a call last May for volunteers to help clear the area marking the camp’s baseball diamond during internment. It was then that Kwong, who still plays in Japanese American leagues in California, was struck by the vision of baseball once again unfolding on this patch of dirt framed by the Inyo Mountains.

One year later, the vision is nearing reality: Thanks to significant contributions from design and construction firms, cooperation from the National Park Service and an ongoing fundraiser , Kwong hopes to break ground on the ballfield by June.

A September doubleheader is planned, including an all-star game pitting players from Japanese American teams hailing from the state’s north and south, a fitting tribute to those still burgeoning but rarely discussed leagues in the country’s most populous state.

The all-stars plan to wear uniforms designed by K&P Weaver, which specializes in vintage baseball garb. A Hollywood props house, History For Hire, has opened up its trove of ancient baseball gear previously seen in Field of Dreams, A League Of Their Own, and other baseball films.

It is both a recognition of the resolve of the imprisoned who kept the game alive and an ode to baseball lineage.

Baseball before internment

In a more just world, the arc of Japanese American baseball would be unfettered by internment.

The game was largely introduced to Japan in the late 19 th century by Horace Wilson, a Maine librarian and Civil War veteran who eventually taught English at Tokyo University. The game’s popularity both in Japan and the USA boomed just as a significant number of Japanese immigrated stateside.

One of those immigrants was Kenichi Zenimura, now known as the “Father of Japanese American Baseball.” He eventually settled in Fresno, California, and spearheaded barnstorming tours of Japan with his Fresno Athletic Club team.

In 1927, he competed alongside and against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig when the New York Yankees legends’ barnstorming tour came to Fresno ; eventually, Zenimura helped set the stage for the future Hall of Famers to tour Japan.

Just like Black people and Latinos, Asian American players were not welcome in Major League Baseball, reduced to exhibitions and playing against Negro League teams – both stateside and in Japan.

“They had the five tools and the desire, but didn’t get the opportunity,” says Kerry Yo Nakagawa, director of the non-profit Nisei Baseball Research project. His uncle, Johnny Nakagawa, is pictured in a famous portrait alongside Ruth and Gehrig from their Fresno exhibition.

“It wasn’t so much who won or lost, but rather that American ambassadors banned from baseball in America became amazing ambassadors in Japan.”

Nakagawa’s family arc was typical. His grandfather immigrated from Hiroshima to Hawaii and moved to Fresno in 1886 to start a grape farm. Nakagawa’s father was born in 1905, part of the Nisei generation, or children born to Japanese immigrants in their new country.

Soon, baseball would help define the generation. Both the grassroots and high-profile events seeded a bustling Japanese American baseball movement in California, with teams in more populous areas like San Jose, San Pedro and the San Fernando Valley, along with clubs in migrant towns far smaller on the map – Lodi, Reedley, Florin

“Every little Podunk farm town,” notes Kwong, “had a baseball team.”

Soon, they would have to play behind barbed wire.

Internerment, indefinitely

Internment scattered families, friends and ballplayers from California to Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Arkansas. Zenimura was sent to Arizona’s Gila River camp, far from his Fresno home, but the far-flung locale did not diminish his enterprising spirit.

Zenimura soon had a baseball field up and running, and eventually, a 32-team league that competed against each other and also area teams .

Some teams had virtually their entire rosters intact within the camps. The San Fernando Aces, well-seasoned from their semi-pro tours of California, dominated opponents at Manzanar.

In this setting, baseball represented a paradox: An entire people held against their will, yet allowed to construct fields, obtain equipment and compete, sometimes in front of hundreds standing or crouched in the dirt surrounding the diamond.

“I think the government looked at it like, ‘Oh, this will be good for morale,’” says Kwong. “When the government started these camps, they had no exit strategy. It was like, ‘What are we going to do with these people?’ Nobody knew how long they were going to be there. Are we here for the rest of our lives?’

“Nobody knew.

“There was a sense within the communities of, ‘OK, we’re going to have to make this our world.’ And they began to make community. So they’re building gardens, making baseball fields, teaching classes in arts and crafts. Everything to try and make life as livable as possible.”

That included Kwong’s mother, Momo Nagano, who played softball at Manzanar. She died in 2010; Kwong’s 102-year-old aunt interned at Manzanar is still alive.

All were subject to the xenophobia and rampant racism that screamed from 50-point newspaper headlines or signs indicating their kind were not welcome as employees or patrons of certain businesses.

Internment was simply the ultimate byproduct of this sentiment; baseball under the gaze of a guard tower was a small part of reclaiming that personhood.

“To play baseball was also this expression of American-ness: ‘Yes, we are Americans, even if you don’t think we are,’” says Kwong. “And we will participate in this quintessential piece of American culture. It was a bit of a statement, in that regard.

“It was a way to experience a piece of their pre-war lives. They lost everything. But they were allowed to keep baseball? OK. So, it really had a very profound symbolic meaning as well as something to do.”

And there was talent behind the barbed wire.

Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama stood just 5-3 and weighed 140 pounds, but after surviving internment in Poston, Arizona, he went on to become an all-conference football and baseball player at Fresno State, inducted into their athletics hall of fame .

Hirayama would go on to play for the Hiroshima Carp and later scout and coach for the Japanese club. It was in the Carp’s camp in the Dominican where he spotted and helped develop Alfonso Soriano, who would go on to play in Japan and become a seven-time All-Star for the Yankees, Rangers, Nationals and Cubs.

Some families were divided by circumstance. Rosie Kikuuchi was perhaps the most talented softball player at Manzanar, good enough to play, and flourish, with the men in baseball games. Yet since her husband, Jack, had enlisted in the Army before internment, he avoided internment and was able to play on an Army all-star team that defeated the Chicago Cubs in an exhibition .

For Japanese Americans in the Central Valley, Highway 99 served as a dividing line. Those west of the highway were sent to Jerome, Arkansas, and those east of 99, such as Zenimura, were sent to Gila Bend.

Nakagawa’s grandmother never made it back from Arkansas, passing away in the camp there.

Within the camps, baseball helped bond generations whose hierarchy was fracturing. It was the Nisei – or first-generation American-born – youth who were tasked with communicating with guards and camp officials, not the monolingual elders.

The universal language of the sport would endure.

'Baseball became an elixir'

After the war, the internment camps were hastily dissembled, and for decades, the lone remnants at Manzanar were an auditorium converted to a county storage space and two stone sentry huts marking the entrance.

But as it earned National Historic Site designation and fell under the auspices of the National Park Service, Manzanar has gradually been restored in the past two decades, with a guard tower, a mess hall and a school added.

If all goes well, the ballfield will serve as another testament beyond the commemorative marker.

Its remote locale – a nearly four-hour drive from Los Angeles, and closer to Death Valley than anything resembling a metropolitan area – means precious little baseball may be played there in years to come. Yet its existence should spark conversations that might have never happened.

The planned September twinbill – the first game pitting Kwong’s Li’l Tokio Giants against the Lodi JACL Templars, who began play in 1915 – is part of a larger commemoration that includes performance-art pieces.

The educational component is unspoken, but powerful. Kwong and Nakagawa feel that heaviness when they visit.

“You cannot escape that wind, from morning to night,” says Nakagawa. “These Americans, you can imagine their civil liberties taken from them, their homes, their farms, their businesses, and living at the base of the mountains.

“Baseball became an elixir, a normalcy."

After a group of three dozen volunteers helped Kwong remove tumbleweeds at the site and later thanked him for the opportunity to perform the thorny task. Kwong notes that the "Silent Generation" label applies to those interned during the war, as well; he says his mother was an outlier, that she was a natural storyteller.

But there are many gaps in how the word was passed from camp detainees to prior generations. Now, a gaggle of twentysomething Japanese American ballplayers may just have a life-changing experience on their journey to play a game.

“I had one manager,” says Kwong, “who said, ‘You know, I had a hard time getting my guys interested. They were like, ‘We have to drive all the way out to the desert?’

“I’m like, ‘Yeah dude, that’s where the government put your grandparents. It was not a place chosen for its convenience.’

“I’m pretty confident that any of these young guys who play in these games, it’s going to change their consciousness.”

Nakagawa agrees.

“It will be a full circle situation,” he says. “It’s so beautiful to see the circle closed in September.”