Global Events Partners, a leading partnership of destination management companies worldwide, has announced that it is closing its seven company-owned DMCs, which are GEP Washington (D.C.), GEP Philly, GEP Baltimore, GEP Bahamas, GEP South Florida, GEP Utah, and GEP Atlanta. The move, according to GEP Chairman and CEO Chris White, is a return to GEP’s original business model representing only independently owned and operated partners, which now number 58 and are “100 percent open for business.”
Three GEP-branded DMCs in Arizona, Spain, and Las Vegas are licensed companies, which are not owned by GEP and remain open for business, White said. GEP Orlando will return to its previous ownership as Florida Coast to Coast with the same team in place. All business that was contracted with the affected DMCs is being transferred to another DMC in the interim, said White, and clients have been contacted with detailed information.
White also owns The Krisam Group, a sister company that represents 250 top meeting hotels and resorts worldwide, and based in Washington, D.C. GEP’s 58 partner DMCs operate in more than 90 destinations worldwide. “We will continue to focus on the meeting professional’s needs,” White continued, “by providing them with the best in DMC destinations, coupled with Krisam’s hotels and resorts worldwide, and the best in support from our 20 sales representatives.”
In late September, White announced that Catherine Chaulet, who weeks earlier was appointed President of GEP Destination Management, took on the additional post of president of Krisam Group and Global Events Partners, after James Schultenover left to become president of Associated Luxury Hotels International. GEP and Krisam veteran Stacy Tischler was promoted to chief operating officer at the time. Chaulet came to GEP from Best of Boston and BostonCoach, where she served as senior vice president of the DMC and of the executive chauffeured transportation company.
