MIAMI -- Sabre is getting into the agency consortium business,
effective immediately.
The charter members of the new Jurni Network will be the 750
independent travel agents who buy their hosting services from San
Jose, Calif.-headquartered Nexion, a business that Sabre previously
disclosed it is buying.
However, said Eric Speck, a Sabre executive vice president and
chief marketing officer, Jurni will create customized programs for
several categories of agents. All of the programs will feature
technology and targeted-marketing elements that will surpass
anything offered by competing consortia, he added.
Speck said Jurni, after taking over Nexion's host program for
non-ARC agents, will roll out programs for full-service agencies.
That will be followed by variations geared toward specialists in
travel-seller niches.
Some Jurni programs could include branding the Jurni name along
the lines of a franchise, he said, if agents want that.
Speck said the Jurni program will include:
• A preferred-supplier program and direct-marketing management
system. The first iteration will be rolled out in November, Speck
said.
He said Jurni will provide preferred arrangements some suppliers
that participate in Nexion, Sabre Exclusives (a hotel
merchant-model program), Site59 and Travelocity. There will be
unique negotiated products, as well, Sabre said.
The first preferred-supplier group will be Mark Travel's owned
brands, with the exception of its Blue Sky Tours brand, which
specializes in Hawaii packages.
• An integrated desktop, based on Nexion technology, which links
users to the four GDSs, cruise lines, Web fares and consolidator
fares. This merchandising and booking tool would be introduced in
first-quarter 2004.
To enhance each agency's databases, Jurni is working with
Equitec, which provides data on consumer buying trends. When this
information is combined with data in the desktop system, it will
help agents predict which products their clients are most likely to
buy, Speck said.
• Dynamic packaging, in mid-2004.
• Systems to power agency Web sites, by the end of 2004.
Chris Kroeger, Sabre's senior vice president for Europe, Middle
East and Africa, will be the network's founding general
manager.
Responding to questions, Speck said Sabre decided to create
Jurni as "a mechanism to improve its value proposition" for
suppliers and for agents.
He said Jurni's fees for agents will be "competitive" with those
of other consortia. Speck said agency candidates for Jurni will be
screened to ensure they are a good match. Sabre is "not out to
build giant numbers," he said.
The first contracts will be one-year deals, and at least
initially, agents won't have to choose Jurni as their only
consortium, but "we will have stringent performance criteria" that
may pressure them to choose, Speck said.
Members will not have to be Sabre agencies.
Sabre gave agents their first look at Jurni technology at a
Jurni Network booth in the ASTA trade show here this week.
You can reach the journalist who wrote this article at [email protected].