Michael Culhane Managing Director, Virtual Marketplaces

Michael heads up the FastLane/ MarketPlace 365 Travel Industry Practice, and, as a veteran of more than 120 travel trade shows as Keynote, Sponsor, Exhibitor and Buyer brings a keen sense of what these constituent groups are looking for in marketplaces that are increasingly moving online.

Michael is a 30 year travel industry veteran with broad experience in the Lodging and Hospitality sector as well as the Wholesale and Inbound business. Michael was a Co-Founder, in 1982, of Gametrackers Botswana, an early pioneer of the high price/ low impact tourism model that was the forerunner of the modern eco-tourism model. Gametrackers developed six camps in the Okavango Delta and Chobe reserves in Botswana and developed the market from a zero base in North America. At time of sale to Orient Express Hotels in 1992, Gametrackers and its affiliated wholesale tour operator was the largest producer of travelers to Southern Africa.

Michael has had broad experience in selling luxury travel to Africa arranging over 3,000 trips for top CEO’s, celebrities and high end groups such as YPO. In 2006, Michael co-founded AdventureLink, the leading aggregator of tour product online and was responsible for bringing more than 1,000 tour operators, for the US and around the world, onto the platform. He has built and maintains relationships with the major travel providers and hospitality operators around the world.

Michael holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.