Global Travel Collection and its advisors will be the focus of a new television pilot to air on NBC on May 21. The show is called “The Extra Mile Club.”
The pilot was filmed at GTC’s New York City office and features travel advisors Curtis Parris and Leslie Tillem, both planning an ideal New York weekend for “The Bachelor” stars Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon.
“It talks about the value that our advisors provide to our customers every day, even with the sort of travel snafus that might happen along the way,” GTC president Angie Licea said during a media event on Thursday.
Iaconetti and Haibon were no strangers to working with travel advisors. The Travel Siblings — a GTC affiliate owned by brother-and-sister duo Harlan deBell and Kara Bebell — booked all of the travel for their wedding.
GTC is the luxury division of Internova Travel Group (No. 9 on Travel Weekly’s 2022 Power List). The division includes brands All Star Travel Group, Andrew Harper, Colletts Travel, In the Know Experiences, Protravel International, R. Crusoe & Son and Tzell Travel Group.
“We’re thrilled for the fact that NBC chose this company to partner with,” Licea said. “I think it speaks a lot for our company.”
Parris said the show is centered around what travel advisors do for their clients behind the scenes.
“It’s not just about what we think is a great weekend, it’s about listening to the client and then creating their dreams and their wishes in that curation,” Parris said. “And so at the end of it, the client decides who wins.”
It’s not a “backstabbing, who wins” reality competition, Parris said, but rather the client picking which advisor designed the weekend that spoke most to them.
“That’s what we’re always looking for, where we really meet that need of the client and go above and beyond,” Parris said.
Parris and Tillem were chosen after auditioning, Parris said. It took about three weeks to film, on and off.
Parris was mum about who won, and said that would be revealed in the first episode.