We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Will Medina a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Will, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Our personalized approach to travel and destination wedding planning is an art lost in this digital world. Even with our nationwide clients, we offer our services via Zoom to keep that face-to-face element that is so Important to accomplish great results when planning for such a special event/occasion.

Will, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my travel company as a virtual agency in 2009… that’s right, right after the 2008 recession. At the time it was a blessing to be so young and unaware of how long the impact of the said recession was going to last. Although the time could not be more “off” I focused on my desire to help people plan their vacations with less stress and without gambling their hard-earned dollars by risking ending up at a sub-par resort with pretty pictures on the internet. After all, growing up in the Dominican Republic and experiencing many of the All-Inclusive resorts in the area was key information and first-hand experience I used to help our clients.

Ironically, a little over a decade later we found ourselves in a new global predicament. The world shut down and suddenly traveling became this uber-complex field to navigate from entry requirements to the different destination’s testing protocols, quarantine mandates, and never-ending changes by both our government and the countries we visit.

Travel as we knew it became new and kind of scary, so I relied on that same passion of my early days and decided to take off and explore our main selling destinations across Mexico and the Caribbean to share the new normal with our clients and followers on Social Media allowing them to become familiar and comfortable with getting back to enjoying our beautiful world once again.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

From the very beginning of my business, I understood that Social Media was a powerful way to connect with people beyond my geographical location and share my message which was to inspire people to travel more, and better.

Initially, this was mainly via a Facebook Page which was the leading platform at the time. Then Instagram came about. As a Millenial and a Travel Advisor this platform felt more aligned with me and how I wanted to connect so I decided to focus on this platform to share my travels with the world.

Today, we are still using the platform as our main “window” to the world and it is a great source to connect with colleagues and potential clients.

My advice for anyone starting out is to focus on the very meaning of these networks which is to be and keep it SOCIAL. Then, pay attention to the strategies that are working because they are constantly evolving. In the last couple of years, video has been key to showcasing your personal brand and better connecting at a human level. With reels and short videos being the trend across the board it makes sense to focus on sharing more of what these platforms want to promote.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Helping engaged couples book and plan a destination wedding in a different country comes with its unique challenges. Knowing the country’s regulations to getting married, understanding the myriad of wedding packages at each resort, curating the right resort for the couple and 100 of their family and friends, while working hard to keep them on budget, etc.

Now add all the unknowns that Covid tossed at us and our couples. The number of cancellations and postponements we faced in 2020 were enough to make anyone quit.

But not only is this my passion and joy, I quickly realized that these couples needed me more than ever. After all, rebooking an entire wedding group, negotiating room rates for a second, and sometimes a third date was not something that couples knew how to do, nor had the time to focus on while navigating the challenges of the Pandemic in their own lives, whether that was homeschooling their kids, losing their jobs or a loved one.

After starting a travel agency shortly after a recession and surviving during and post-covid, I am confident that our industry and I can get through anything together. Shout out to all of my colleagues around the country who stuck it out and supported their clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.destinationweddingsexpert.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/destinationweddingsexpert
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/destinationweddingsexpert
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv2m1L4aQA0dIa3evMrMb_w

Image Credits
Photo Credits: 1. Martin Ameztoy Photogaphy 2. Junior Cruz Photography 3. LuxArt Studio