MILWAUKEE -- Mark Travel named a president for its flagship brand
Funjet Vacations as part of a strategy that will focus more of the
company's resources on fewer agencies.
While founder and chairman Bill La Macchia and chief operating
officer Bill La Macchia Jr. remain in charge, they named Ray Snisky
Funjet's president and a new management team to market what Snisky
called "an elite collection of the most forward-thinking,
productive agencies in the business."
Mark Travel's business is back to the levels of 2000, Snisky
said, adding that the Web booking system VAX
VacationAccess, introduced in 2001, has cut costs and helped to
position the company for growth.
"This is about taking significant resources and using them to
put travel agencies in an environment to succeed," said Snisky.
"The folks who want to work closely with us are the ones we want to
work with."
According to Snisky, the company will offer broad support to
agencies, including joint marketing; help in creating marketing
plans; and training in sales, technology, product, destination and
business management.
The company will focus most of its resources on its 500 Club,
which comprises agencies that book at least 500 vacations a year.
The second tier of the strategy is to cultivate agencies that are
not at the 500 level but are committed to growing.
"We will help them achieve more effective use of our technology
to drive them into the ranks of our best agencies," Snisky
said.
The company also plans to mine the field for home-based agents.
"Many of these [home-based agents] are retailers who have great
relationships with their customers but don't have corporate
backing," he said.
In addition to Funjet, Snisky will oversee all of Mark Travel's
in-house brands: TransGlobal Vacations, Vacations by Adventure
Tours and Mountain Vacations. He will not be in charge of Mark
Travel's private-label vacation-package brands, such as United
Vacations, US Airways Vacations and Southwest Airlines
Vacations.
Snisky started with Mark Travel in 1995 as manager of business
development of United Vacations. Ron Jacobs, who was general
manager of Funjet since 2002, was moved to the position of chief
financial officer.
To contact reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].