Virtuoso Symposium Draws 360 Executives to Seoul
The Seoul gathering focuses on AI, advisor roles, and network scale.
Photo: Ping Onganankun / Unsplash
Virtuoso is in Seoul this week for its 2026 Symposium, bringing together more than 350 agency and supplier executives from 33 countries at Conrad Seoul from April 15–19, as the network considers how automation and human service will coexist at the top end of travel.
This year’s theme—how to “humanize the exceptional”—comes at a moment when AI is beginning to materially change how advisors operate, from trip planning to client communication. Now, more routine work is being handled by technology, raising the bar for where advisors actually create value.
Chairman and CEO Matthew Upchurch leaned into that shift in his opening remarks, positioning automation as a given rather than a future consideration. “AI has expanded what can be automated at a scale we have never seen before,” Upchurch said, adding that the real challenge is deciding where human effort should be applied as that baseline changes.
Sessions this week pair technology-focused discussions, led by figures like Gilad Berenstein and Kelly Monahan, with more operational conversations about how advisors maintain relevance as client expectations evolve.
The network’s scale remains a massive advantage. Virtuoso now spans more than 1,200 agency locations and 20,000 advisors globally, with $35 billion in annual sales. That footprint allows for faster feedback loops across markets, something Upchurch emphasized as the network faces uneven global demand patterns and a more complex operating environment.
“We don’t move ahead individually—we move ahead together,” he said, pointing to shared data and collective decision-making as differentiators as conditions shift.
There’s also a longer-term backdrop. Upchurch referenced World Travel & Tourism Council projections calling for $12.5 trillion in industry investment by 2035, reinforcing that near-term volatility hasn’t changed the underlying growth trajectory. The question is how well advisors can translate that demand into high-value, personalized itineraries.
The symposium runs through Sunday, with sessions continuing across technology, advisor operations, and network collaboration.
