NEW YORK — Virtuoso is riding a wave of momentum into 2017 after announcing a substantial spike in agency, advisor and production growth last year.

By all accounts, the network saw a banner year in 2016, having added 39 new agency locations across 23 countries since last January. In total, there were 772 member agency locations (up 5%), 15,238 travel advisors (up 33%), 44 countries with Virtuoso member agencies (up 19%), and US$21.2 billion in annual production (up 37%).

According to David Kolner, senior vice president of Global Member Partnerships for Virtuoso, the biggest news comes from the number of travel advisors who joined its network.

“More than half of the advisor growth – 55% of it – came from our existing travel agency members, not from agencies we added throughout the year,” he said. “That means current Virtuoso members brought on 2,095 new advisors, which is really incredible when you consider CareerBuilder’s 2016 Jobs Forecast showed only 36% of employers planning to hire full-time permanent employees.”

Kolner also noted that luxury travel is continuing to outpace and outperform other industries. As the top producers in the luxury market, annual revenues for Virtuoso exceeded $21 billion. This allows the network to negotiate better exclusives, from value-added benefits to experiences not available though other channels.

For more information go to Virtuoso.com.