OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A software developer here launched an information
service and support system for travel agents and suppliers and has
already received an endorsement from the National Tour Association,
which agreed to help distribute the product to agents and tour
operators.
The site, at www.geoagents.com, was developed by Travel Automation
Systems Corp., now trading as GeoAgents.com.
Company founder and president David Lovely said the site is
designed to give suppliers and agents an alternative to the static
displays of conventional CRSs while delivering an array of other
Internet-related tools, such as e-mail, Web-page hosting and a
suite of desktop applications for agency managers.
GeoAgents, specifically targeted to agents and wholesalers, he
said, offers a vast database of multimedia information from
suppliers.
Although the site is not a booking engine, participating
suppliers can arrange to link product promotions to their own
booking sites for agents who want to bypass the CRS, Lovely
said.
Hank Phillips, executive director of NTA, said the alliance with
GeoAgents.com is "a way to utilize the Internet to get our tour
operator members directly connected with travel agents."
Phillips said the GeoAgent site will expand the NTA's Web
presence to an audience not being reached by its own site, www.ntaonline.com.
"We are looking for something external to gain visibility and a
travel agent following, and to use as a platform on which our tour
operators can showcase products to agents."
NTA will have a presence on the site through banner ads. The
site also will incorporate a Travel Desktop feature, a contact
management platform, which will be available to agents and NTA tour
operators through the alliance.
GeoAgents.com in turn will benefit from NTA tour operators'
efforts to promote the site to agents. "We'll be inviting our tour
operators to send information to agents they do business with to
help them be a part of the GeoAgents system," said Phillips.