Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates is renamed Travel Leaders

NEW ORLEANS -- Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates, a franchise group of more than 500 U.S.-based agency locations, will be rebranded as Travel Leaders, the group announced at its annual meeting here on Aug. 21.

The move reflects the fact that Carlson no longer owns the associates program. Carlson sold the Carlson Leisure Group in January to the CLG management team, led by Michael Batt. The new company is called the Travel Acquisitions Group.

The Travel Leaders name also picks up on a brand that TAG owns: TraveLeaders, a $223.3 million agency in Coral Gables, Fla., which it purchased in March.

That agency's name will become Travel Leaders, written as two words, as well.

Currently, most of the former Carlson Wagonlit franchisees do business using the Carlson Wagonlit Travel name, but a minority have continued to use their original business names in tandem with the franchise brand.

Steve Loucks, vice president of communications for the franchiser, said Travel Leaders would give associates guidance for continued dual branding, but he said the hope was that all franchisees would adopt the single brand for a consistent approach across the network.

A key concern among the agencies, Loucks said, has been the prospect of paying for all-new signage, but TAG will offer a financial assistance package to help get over that hump, he said.

In a statement, Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders, said the new name "embodies our years of expertise in offering the best travel experiences available."

Block is president of the franchise business and the TraveLeaders agency. At the time of the TraveLeaders purchase, Alan Hale was introduced as president of the Florida business, but he was filling that seat as a consultant. He continues to consult for TAG.

Travel Leaders is part of a TAG division called Travel Franchise Group. A second division, ProQuest Travel Group, owns a number of Carlson franchisees, which will be rebranded, too. As a result, all TAG-owned full-service agencies will become Travel Leaders.

TAG's Results, Cruise Holidays and SeaMaster Cruises franchises will not be affected by the rebranding. ProQuest also owns two cruise-only businesses, Cruise Specialists and SinglesCruises.com, which are unaffected.

The name change also does not affect Carlson Wagonlit Travel, No. 2 on the Travel Weekly Power List, which is still owned by the Carlson parent company.

The rebranding announcement was broadcast widely in order to cover every community where an affiliate is located, Loucks said.

The enhanced website, at www.travelleaders.com, was activated on Aug. 21, although for the time being, that links users to a Carlson Wagonlit URL. Its key features include an agency locator, a booking engine and an extensive destination database meant to entice prospective customers to do their preliminary research with Travel Leaders.

The announcement also rolled out to the consumer media for the first time a number of client-service initiatives that had been introduced to the trade.

They are the enhanced website, a Travel Leaders Certified Travel Specialist program, proprietary shore excursions offered to clients on selected cruises and the automatic delivery of personalized travel planners to each cruise customer.

For each of these service features, Loucks said, the company wanted to get some "traction" before trumpeting them to the general public.

Travel Leaders said more than 100 of its agents had completed the certification program.