In a letter to the Caribbean Tourism
Organization, the Outside Sales Support Network expressed concern
that CTO's new online booking engine, which is expected to launch
later this month, "may bypass agents unfairly, forcing them to
compete with CTO-member nations and Travelocity for future
bookings."
Gary Fee, OSSN
president and founder, asked for a "full explanation" of the
project "and the degree to which U.S. travel agents will be
involved." 
The question
resulted from an announcement by Tracey Weber, COO of Travelocity,
during a speech at CTO's tourism conference on Grand Bahama last
month.
Weber said that
Travelocity was partnering with CTO in this project; however, she
did emphasize that the site would have a travel agent booking
component.
CTO's response to
OSSN's letter, in the form of a letter from Vincent
Vanderpool-Wallace, secretary general, assured Fee that "travel
agents have been, are and will continue to be very important to the
Caribbean. The travel agent component of our new Web site simply
confirms our plans to work with your OSSN members and the entire
agent community."
Further details
on the new online booking engine are expected later this
month.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Gay Nagle Myers at [email protected].