NEW YORK --
Shipping baggage rather than traveling with it on an airplane is an
idea whose time has come -- at least in certain circles.
Travel agents
have seen it. Elayne Edelman, managing director of the Regent Group
in Beverly Hills, Calif., said plenty of her clients use FedEx and
UPS to send bags to hotels.
Travel suppliers
have seen a need, too. Seabourn Cruise Line, for example, operates
a baggage-shipping service for its own passengers, called Personal
Valet, working with DHL worldwide. And, it was a Holland America
request that launched Seattles International Port Services in this
field.
A few companies
have targeted travelers with baggage-shipping options for several
years, but that business got a boost after 9/11 when security
checks either became, or at least seemed to be, too much of a
hassle.
It also is good
for the shippers when airlines enforce their own rules and charge
for overweight bags. And now, several agency consortia, as well as
some cruise and hotel companies, have tapped shippers as preferred
vendors.
The vendors
themselves have been a little surprised at how their enterprises
evolved.
Jim Wilson,
president of International Port Services, said his business had
worked a few years shipping freight to cruise lines when HAL asked
if the Seattle company could handle luggage as well.
That was 1992. At
the time, Wilson said his company and HAL didnt understand the
value of this service.
After a slow
start, he said, the business grew, particularly in the last five
years as cruise lines, agents and agency consortia came to
understand that value.
As for
International Port Services, its business is now overwhelmingly
baggage shipping (80% of activity) because of demand and because
the returns are better, Wilson said.
In 1992, he said,
the customers were mostly wealthy senior citizens, typically
traveling on world cruises or other long trips. Nowadays, he said,
the market is travelers ages 35 and up, couples or adults with
children and/or passengers on cruises as short as seven
days.
Boca Raton,
Fla.-based Luggage Express, which also does business as Virtual
Bellhop, has been in this game for seven years. Initially, said
Cecilia Vesnesky, director for the two businesses, her company
thought the market was only high-end leisure.
The leisure part
was right, now accounting for 78% of activity. However, the vendor
discovered sports-related travel, with consumers shipping
equipment, and the disabled traveler. Luggage Express works with
with the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality
(SATH).
Nick Colucci,
president of Luggage Concierge in Hawthorne, N.Y., sees similar
patterns.
Its not just the
affluent. Its the snowbirds who dont want to deal with bags or
cannot lift them, families with little kids and the disabled, he
said.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].