The travel industry isn\u2019t short of conferences, but CT Partners\u2019 upcoming event is set to be a little different.<\/strong><\/p>\n This year, the group is taking its 2026 annual conference to a luxury superyacht.<\/p>\n According to CT Partners CEO Matt Masson, Ritz-Carlton saw an opportunity to put a growing group of high-value travel sellers on board and let them experience the product first-hand.<\/p>\n The conference is expected to attract slightly more delegates than last year, with the audience particularly weighted towards premium and luxury travel.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they wanted to use it as a \u2026 famil element,\u201d Masson told Travel Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also a famil element by getting everybody on board the yacht and experiencing it will hopefully help their sales in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n The conference will bring together owners and senior executives from CT Partners\u2019 35 member agencies, with the group spanning premium and luxury leisure, MICE and corporate travel.<\/p>\n Masson said that audience was a key attraction for Ritz-Carlton.<\/p>\n \u201cThey saw the opportunity of getting all these great businesses on board, particularly because it\u2019s all the owner managers of, you know, premium leisure, MICE, and corporate travel companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The opportunity also comes as CT Partners members become increasingly familiar with the luxury yacht product.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have already some members selling the Ritz-Carlton yacht for groups and for private travel,\u201d Masson said.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our members have booked it for their own incentives.\u201d<\/p>\n For Masson, experiencing the product first-hand is particularly valuable because Luminara<\/em> is positioned differently from a traditional cruise ship.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really does feel more like, say, a floating luxury hotel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The accommodation is a major part of that proposition, with Masson highlighting the size of the suites.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lead-in suites, I think, are about 40-something square metres,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s unusual. Like on an ocean cruise, generally your lead-in room type might be 15 or 20 square metres.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTheir suites are very spacious. They\u2019ve all got balconies.\u201d<\/p>\n The dining experience also stood out to Masson, who described one venue offering an 11-course degustation menu with paired wines.<\/p>\n Ritz-Carlton was among the first luxury hotel brands to enter the yacht market, but Masson said it has since been joined by major competitors including Aman and Four Seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were the kind of first to market,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has been some other competitors coming up in that space, like Aman, Four Seasons has launched their products. So it seems like they\u2019ve trailblazed this new category.\u201d<\/p>\n Masson said the growing luxury yacht category is also creating opportunities in the corporate and incentive market.<\/p>\n \u201cCorporates are interested in doing something quite well instead of just doing another hotel incentive program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He believes that reflects a broader shift in what companies expect from business travel, with groups increasingly seeking experiences that bring people together.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are looking for that kind of engagement with their colleagues when they are on a business trip, rather than it just being kind of a bit more transactional, as it was in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n For Ritz-Carlton, the CT Partners conference offers a chance to put a large group of influential sellers inside its product for several days \u2014 effectively turning the conference into a product experience as well as an industry event.<\/p>\n The CT Partners Annual Conference, themed The Art of Travel<\/em>, will run from November 15 to 20. It begins at W Shanghai The Bund before delegates board Luminara for a three-night voyage to Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The travel industry isn\u2019t short of conferences, but CT Partners\u2019 upcoming event is set to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/LU_2025_Exteriors_Beach-House-Pool-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/LU_2025_Exteriors_Beach-House-Pool-scaled.jpg\")
A captive audience of luxury sellers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
More floating luxury hotel than cruise ship<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Flower](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Flower-Field-Hall-with-string-orchestra-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"Flower](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Flower-Field-Hall-with-string-orchestra-scaled.jpg\")
A growing luxury yacht category<\/strong><\/h3>\n