DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- The founder of InteleTravel bought back the
assets of the company and launched a drive to resurrect its
100,000-member sales force.
Joe Traina, who started InteleTravel in San Diego in the
mid-1990s and oversaw its growth to one of the largest outside
agency networks, said he intends to build InteleTravel into an even
bigger company than before. He has renamed the company
InteleTravel2000.
Traina is projecting $200 million to $300 million in travel
sales from InteleTravel2000 by the end of 2001. He said sales will
be channeled to Travel Services International, a U.S. subsidiary of
Airtours, the U.K.-based travel company in which Carnival Corp. has
a stake.
TSI president Peter McHugh confirmed it would fulfill
InteleTravel's bookings.
Traina said he purchased the assets of InteleTravel from Michael
Egan, chairman of Certified Vacations, who bought the firm from him
in October 1997 and shut down its operations in mid-1999.
The original InteleTravel created a flap in the industry when it
became one of the fastest growing of a pack of firms selling $495
travel agent programs that sprung up across the country in 1996 and
1997.
Critics labeled the companies card mills because travel industry
discounts available to those showing a travel agent ID card were
elements of the companies' promotions.
In the past week, InteleTravel sent letters to its database of
100,000 agents announcing the relaunch of the company and the
agreement with TSI. Both InteleTravel2000 and TSI are based in
Delray Beach, Fla.
Unlike the old company, which was an ARC-accredited travel
agency and operated a call center, InteleTravel2000 will
concentrate on sales of the agent membership programs and agent
training, with TSI handling travel sales fulfillment, Traina
said.
"We were a successful company, with $100 million in sales, but
we lacked Internet technology and our operating costs for our 186
employees were high," he said.
The new InteleTravel2000 Web site, at www.inteletravel2000.com, links to the TSI booking
engine, enabling agents to book cruises, consolidator air fares and
other TSI products via the Internet, Traina said.
InteleTravel2000 agents also can reach TSI by telephone, but Web
bookings will be encouraged to keep overhead costs low, Traina
said.
The company is offering its former agents -- who paid $495 to
join the old program -- a one-time "re-enrollment fee" of $49 plus
a monthly service fee of $3.95 per month.
It also is targeting new consumers interested in becoming
part-time, home-based agents, charging them a $199 fee plus a
monthly fee of $9.95 per month.
As before, agent ID cards are included. Agents receive 2.5%
commission for cruise sales, 5% on international air and car
rentals and 2.5% on tour packages. There is no commission on
domestic air, hotels or domestic car rentals.
John Gioscia, InteleTravel2000 managing director, said the
commission structure was devised to steer agents to sell the more
lucrative products available from TSI, which is a leading cruise
retailer and owns Auto Europe and air consolidators.