Community Highlights: Meet Debbie Garcia of virsitour

Today we’d like to introduce you to Debbie Garcia. 

Hi Debbie, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story has a lot of twists and turns to where I have ended up. I spent many years in the TV and Radio industries working in a production role as video editor, producer, audio engineer, and writer. After many years of being isolated in studios, I was intrigued by the events industry and become a Certified Wedding Planner. When I was laid off from Westwood One Radio Networks in 2011, I decided to go full force into events and started with a DMC in an operations role. This opened my eyes to the corporate events industry and I was instantly in love. I made many changes over the next few years as my life was changing. With the addition of my children into the mix, I found being away from them and securing childcare was very difficult and decided to take on roles that gave me a bit more freedom with my time. I learned so much through venue sales and planning, hotel sales, off-site catering, hotel opening, and two tech startups in the events industry. I decided in 2018 to try my hand at venue sourcing for a third-party company. It was a tough transition since it was a commission-based job and I needed to gain my own clients. I did very well the first year with winning two companywide awards and booked several meetings and events for my clients. When March 2020 came about and the pandemic hit, my world changed. I had my two kids home with me, all my venue sourced events and meetings canceling or rebooking, loss of full-time employment with on of the tech startups, and our Airbnb empty. I started thinking how can I salvage my clients’ events for the future and give hope to planners and suppliers that we will get through this. That is when virsitour was born. Short for virtual site tour, I created a platform where meeting and event planners can venue source virtually without leaving the comfort of their desk, on their own time. With an easy-to-use directory of hotels and venues from across the globe, event buyers are able to search, view virtual site tours and other information about the venues, create and add to list, create a request for proposal and send directly to supplier. This was very important for me and many planners from around the world to bring back in-person events. Many of us are still struggling with childcare or travel restrictions, but still have events to book. virsitour helps planners see the venues virtually to send qualified leads to suppliers. This is a win-win for both parties as the hospitality industry continues to be hit hard for group bookings. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would love to say it has been a smooth road, but learning the tech start-up industry with two kids in virtual school, trying to keep clients, and making ends meet during the pandemic has been a bit of a challenge. The upside is that I am loving what I am doing. I am a constant learner, I love asking hard questions, learning new things, and changing minds. Even though the pandemic sparked the idea, it has also been the biggest obstacle. As a hard-hit hotel and venue industry recovers, budgets have been slashed and bringing a new tool to the table, even though the return on investment is very good, there have been some stalling as we build. We have seen an increase in planner participation on the platform, which is amazing, we need more hotels and venue sign-ups to provide the planners the material they are looking for. We also just signed on a major hotel chain after 8 months of back and forth and will be making an announcement very soon. 

We’ve been impressed with virsitour, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
virsitour is an online platform for meeting and event planners to venue source virtually utilizing virtual site tours all in one place. They can easily search, view each listings virtual site tour and specifications, add to list, and send request for proposal. We are different from other venue sourcing tools as we make the visuals the most important aspect of the process. If you are unable to travel, you can still see and get a feel of the venue. We utilize several types of virtual site tours from videos (which we can create for you), use one of our partner 360º virtual site tour companies or if you already have one, all you need to do is fill out a form with the link. 

I am very proud of our partnerships we have secured. We knew we could not do this alone; content is king. virsitour is the distribution channel to get virtual site tours and other specifications out to our huge planner network of over 40K key buyers in the industry. 

virsitour is free for planners to use and they can access it 24/7 to source on their own time. We made the supplier plans very affordable and easy to set up a listing in less than 10 minutes. One booking pays for virstour. 

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I love to sing and dance. When I was growing up in New York, I always thought I’d be on Broadway. It was my dream to be an actress. I have done theatre and acting throughout the course of my life and even met my husband doing a local theatrical production of The Music Man in 2006. I love karaoke and to sing with my kids. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.virsitour.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/virsitour
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/virsitour
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/virsitour
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=virsitour

Image Credits
Tina Gionis Photography