FORT WORTH, Texas -- API Travel Consultants, a consortium of
upscale travel agencies based here, adopted a new name: Virtuoso,
with the tagline Specialists in the Art of Travel.
The group has a new logo, consisting of an abstract black-
and-white illustration of a globe rotating on a red exclamation
point. The new identity was unveiled at the consortium's annual
overseas symposium in Vienna, Austria.
Matthew Upchurch, the group's managing principal, said the
change was designed "to build the brand equity that we seek among
affluent travelers. It became obvious that we needed a very dynamic
name and corporate identity to serve as a focal point of our
upcoming marketing campaign," he said, adding that the consortium's
executives "considered hundreds of prospective names, most
featuring some element of the word travel."
Virtuoso was submitted by "an anonymous employee," and drew
favor because it was "an Old World term for an individual with
consummate skill, cultivated taste and the rare ability to deliver
masterful performances," he said. Virtuoso is developing trade and
consumer advertising campaigns to tell the world about its new
moniker.
API stood for Allied Percival International, an alliance of two
companies, Allied Travel and Percival Tours.