BRISBANE, Calif.
-- Walmart.com
beefed up its online Wal-Mart Vacations operation last week to
include vacation packages for the first time. The online travel
service is powered by National Leisure Group (NLG) in Woburn,
Mass., and was first rolled out in January, offering cruises.
With the latest
enhancement, consumers can buy packages created the old-fashioned
way or they can create their own plans using dynamic packaging
capabilities. NLG also is providing new destination
services.
The new, richer
Wal-Mart Vacations also introduced its rollback rates, meaning
discounts on Mexico and Las Vegas packages. It said it will offer a
new round of rollback travel specials every three
months.
Travel has been part of the
Wal-Mart product line for some time, beginning with off-line
agencies. The mega-store operates eight Vacation Centers: five in
Florida and one each in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. Also, a number
of Travel Network franchised outlets sit in Wal-Mart
stores.
As for the Web,
Wal-Mart in 2002 tapped Carnival Corp. as its exclusive cruise
provider at Walmart.com, with Carnival offering a lowest-price
guarantee to the mega-retailers customers. Initially, consumers had
to make the bookings by telephone.
Later in 2002,
Wal-Mart announced a deal with Thrifty Car Rental to provide flat
rates for Thrifty cars booked through Walmart.com, with a best
rates guarantee. Wal-Mart continues to have a relationship with
Thrifty, but not with Carnival, a spokeswoman said.
As of this year,
Sams Club, which is a discount club division of Wal-Mart, offers
Sams Club Vacations, which also is powered by NLG.
NLG -- which does not sell directly to
the public at NLG.com but powers more than 20 private-label sites --
provides similar services and similar inventory in all its
private-label programs, but each is operated and marketed
independently and each has unique elements, a spokeswoman said.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].