ATLANTA -- Far exceeding its initial expectations, on-line lead
generation service eGulliver reported registering 355 specialist
agents in its first three weeks of accepting submissions.
The massive early response puts the firm well on its way toward
its initial year-end goal of 500 agents, which it could even
surpass by the time the company's Web site, at www.egulliver.com,
launches to consumers in September, chief executive officer Deslie
Webb said.
The site, which seeks to match mostly upscale travelers with
agents who specialize in a given destination or vacation
experience, qualifies leads for participating agents by soliciting
detailed information on a visitor's interests, budget and
demographics.
Visitors are able to search a database of agents based on
specialties and certificationjs granted by organizations including
ICTA, ASTA, CLIA and tourism boards.
Agents who have registered thus far include specialists in more
than 50 activities, a dozen "lifestyle" designations and 200
destinations, the company said.
Working with a modest marketing budget, eGulliver was able to
build interest on the basis of its demonstrations at trade and
technology conferences, e-mail solicitations and through its
partnership with ASTA, announced earlier this month.
"I guess you can say we're a little surprised and maybe a bit
overwhelmed by how phenomenal the response has been, but it's a
nice problem to have," said Webb.
Despite the early response, Webb said the company does not yet
plan to readjust its year-end target goal, adding that it will have
a better idea how large a response to expect after demonstrating
its service at the ASTA Congress in Las Vegas this September.
Agents who take part in the system pay a $100 registration fee,
additional fees for each lead generated by the service and a
commission for each lead that closes.
One potential drawback of the early response to eGulliver is
that agents are taking advantage of the company's offer to waive
registration fees for all those who sign up prior to launch of the
consumer site. That notwithstanding, Webb did not see this as a
major concern.
"What we initially looked at as a challenge was the
chicken-and-egg problem of trying to build our reputation among
agents while also first needing agents in our system to demonstrate
what we can do, so this helps us significantly in getting over that
hurdle," she said. "It's why we made the offer in the first
place."
She also said the company remains interested in partnering with
major franchise groups and consortia that wish to register their
member agencies in the site's database.
But Carlson Wagonlit Travel, one of the nation's largest
franchisors and former employer of Webb and eGulliver's other
co-founders, isn't likely to be among them, a Carlson spokesman
said this week.
The spokesman said that the specialist search function Carlson
debuted in May on its own consumer Web site, at www.carlsontravel.com, makes eGulliver's service
redundant.