Travel Leaders Group acquired Vacation.com, North America's largest travel consortium, in January 2011. Four months later, John Lovell took over as V-com president. Lovell talked with editor at large Johanna Jainchill about how the acquisition has played out after one year and why North American agents are well-positioned this year.
Q: What is the best example of how your members have benefited from the acquisition by Travel Leaders?
A: AirPro, first and foremost. That by far is our signature program, simply because it's leveraging the strength of our parent organization: specifically, [sister companies] Tzell and Travel Leaders. Really, that air side is where they were specifically strong. We were able to leverage that for our membership so they could compete and make money in the air arena.
We launched three new programs: Stream [a hotel booking tool], Air Pro and In-sites [travel information mini-sites that can be embedded into members' existing websites]. They all speak to the resources and the programs that we have access to because we are owned by Travel Leaders Group.
Q: At 15%, is AirPro member usage what you hoped it would be?
A: We are very happy. Anytime you roll out a program with 5,000 members, you want adoption and usage to ramp up in the right fashion. ... In this case, in terms of training, educating on what's commissionable, introducing them to a new online tool, it all takes time and resources.
Q: You said that with what's going on in Europe, the North American travel agent is in a good position. How so?
A: When you read what's going on in Europe and you listen to an earnings call where they are predicting the source market in Europe is going to be light, you know [suppliers] will really look for the American distribution channel to make up for that shortfall. The North American travel professional is in a very, very strong position. There is more inventory for them to sell, plus the suppliers are looking for them to sell it. As suppliers then engage those agencies, working with them on their marketing plans and promotions, it's a great opportunity for agencies to sit down with them to discuss how to [grow their brands].
Q: At last year's V-com conference, [Travel Leaders Chairman] Mike Batt said Travel Leaders Group would launch an online booking tool for customers by the end of the year, to compete with online travel agencies. What happened with that?
A: We are still working to bring that technology, and there is more to come on that one. We are working hard and diligently to get there. Stream gives us the opportunity to leverage additional technology to hopefully bring to our members. Stream was the foundation point we needed, and now off of that we can grow and bring Mike's visions to bear for our members.
Q: You said you are looking at 2012 with "guarded optimism." Why?
A: If we'd had this meeting the first or second week of January, I would have said this will be our best year ever. However, macroeconomic events -- the political turmoil in Europe, gas prices, the debt crisis and the unfortunate events with Costa -- have really tempered the consumer's buying patterns. I believe there is a tremendous amount of pent-up demand out there that is working its way through the distribution channel right now. ... We are still pacing ahead but have eaten into some incremental gain we had when we turned the year. So we are very optimistic, but we are watching how this plays out. If fuel prices hit $6 a gallon, that will have a significant impact on discretionary income. But the trends are all favorable.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.