MIAMI BEACH -- Sabre Travel Network is getting in the agency
consortium business.
The charter members of the new Jurni Network will be the 750
independent travel agents who buy their hosting services from San
Jose, Calif.-based Nexion, a business that Sabre has agreed to
buy.
Jurni will create customized programs for several categories of
agents, and all programs will be characterized by technology and
highly targeted marketing features that Sabre believes will surpass
anything offered by competing consortia, according to Eric Speck,
Sabre's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Speck said Jurni, after taking over the host program for non-ARC
agents, will roll out its package of services for full-service
agencies, followed by an undetermined number of variations on the
theme for specialists in travel-seller niches.
Some Jurni programs could include branding with the Jurni name
along the lines of a franchise, he said, if agents want that.
Key features include a preferred-supplier program and a
direct-marketing management system, to be rolled out in
November.
To be added in first-quarter 2004 is an integrated desktop based
on Nexion technology, which will link users to the four GDSs,
cruise lines, Web fares and consolidator fares.
Dynamic packaging will be added in mid-2004; systems to power
member-agency Web sites will be added by the end of next year.
Speck said Jurni will be able to provide preferred arrangements
with some suppliers that now participate in Nexion, Sabre
Exclusives (a hotel merchant-model program), Site59 and
Travelocity. There will be unique negotiated products, as well,
Sabre said.
The first identified preferred-supplier group will be the Mark
Travel Corp.'s owned brands, except for Blue Sky Tours, a Hawaii
specialist.
To enhance each agency's internal databases, Jurni is working
with Equitec, a provider of data on consumer-buying trends based on
demographics and geographic region, which -- when combined with
existing customer data in the desktop system -- will help agents
predict which products their clients are most likely to buy, Speck
said.
Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of Sabre for Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, will be the network's founding general
manager.
Responding to questions, Speck said Sabre decided to create
Jurni as "a mechanism to improve its value proposition" for the
suppliers with which it already works and for agents.
He said Jurni's fees for agents will be "competitive" with those
of other consortia. As for the size of the network, Speck said
prospects will be screened to ensure they're a good match, adding
that Sabre's "not out to build giant numbers."
First contracts will be one-year deals and, at least initially,
agents won't have to choose Jurni as their only consortium,
although "we will have stringent performance criteria" that may
pressure them to choose, Speck said. Members also don't have to be
Sabre agencies.
Speck added that Jurni might even work in cooperative deals with
other consortia, but "this is not a roll-up."
Technology analyst Richard Eastman, president of software firm
The Eastman Group, called Sabre's impending purchase of Nexion and
launch of Jurni "defensive moves."
"The revenue from the traditional GDS model is going away,"
Eastman said. "Sabre has continued to milk that cash cow for as
long as it can, but it's clear that GDS transactions are declining.
Sabre has to find another thing to be."
Perhaps Sabre plans to establish Jurni as "supporting
architecture" for its online business, said Eastman, adding that
Sabre needs more resources, besides Travelocity and Site59, to
compete with InterActiveCorp -- parent of Expedia, Hotels.com and
soon Hotwire.
Eastman said another possibility is that "Sabre has determined
the home-agent trend [some Nexion clients are home agents] is
viable and wants to play there."
Jerry Limone contributed to this report.
To contact reporters Nadine Godwin or Jerry Limone, send
e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected].