NEW YORK -- ARTA was poised to sign a contract with Hickory Travel
Systems for a program to provide travel agencies with a
"smorgasbord of choices" for boosting revenue by taking advantage
of services, technology and commission deals offered through
Hickory.
John Hawks, ARTA president, said members can give up ARC, run
air sales through Hickory's ARC-approved agency and share in
Hickory-negotiated airline overrides.
Or they can stay with ARC and opt for selected parts of the
Hickory program to optimize commission returns for both air and
nonair bookings.
In addition, the parties will test offshore ticketing.
"The airlines may not appreciate
this," Hawks said, but "it will be done legally" and it "won't be
very obvious."
ARTA members and nonmembers will be eligible to participate in
the program.
The engine behind the program is the Universal Desktop, created
by developer Peragis for use by travel trade groups.
ARTA agencies will use the desktop version that Peragis
customized for Hickory, which has been in beta test with Hickory
for several months.
It is termed "universal" because it aims to unify in one place
the sources agents need, including access to preferred suppliers
for booking; multiple GDSs; consolidators, adventure tours and
other nontraditional sources not often in GDSs; the agency's
accounting system or TravCom on a service-bureau basis; and related
information resources.
Only Sabre is available now, but Peragis chief executive officer
Glen Kerby said other GDSs will be added by year's end. Kerby noted
that Peragis is set to add its Client Manager feature to the
desktop for database management and to enhance that program with
capabilities for automatically dumping relevant data from a wide
variety of sources into customer profiles.
With Client Manager affixed to the product, the Universal
Desktop rolls out officially to Hickory members on May 15,
according to Robert Moses, Hickory vice president of corporate
development.
Hickory members already have invested heavily in technology, but
Moses said a key reason for a common desktop was for the customer
relationship management tool represented by Client Manager. He said
this "formalizes a way of doing business."
About 100 agents, including a few non-ARTA outlets, will begin
beta testing of the ARTA-Hickory program as soon as software can be
loaded at agency offices.
Training will occur by May 17, Hawks said.
Details were to be spelled out at the ARTA annual conference in
San Diego this past weekend.
Agency costs haven't been determined, Hawks said, but will be
significantly higher for nonmembers. He stated pointedly that ARTA
will make no money; the financial benefits will accrue to members
and to Hickory.
Moses said Hickory wanted such a partner because, by increasing
overall Hickory volumes, "it is easier to reinvest profits" for the
future.
Peragis counts about 750 U.S. locations that have its
installations, either as part of the Hickory project or its other
trade group project for TravCom users. There also are about 200
Canadian agencies with installations.
Peragis, with a home office in Calgary, Alberta, and offices in
Phoenix and Toronto, was rocked last year when a securities
investigation of possible trading irregularities by offshore
investors led to suspension of trading in Peragis stock and made it
difficult for the firm to get equity funding.
Kerby said the firm was restructured, refocusing on the U.S.
market and the desktop product, and "moved into profitability."