LAS VEGAS -- Travelsavers and Worldspan unveiled an agreement that
will enable Worldspan to sell Travelsavers' emergency call service
and hotel rate program.
As part of a five-year partnership agreement, Worldspan, which
is the agency network's preferred CRS vendor, will market
Travelsavers services to Worldspan agencies in the U.S. and
internationally.
The products include the Travelsavers HelpLine 24-hour toll-free
emergency call center service and the Travelsavers corporate hotel
program.
"This is a real sales opportunity for both Travelsavers and us,"
said Cheryl Weldon, Worldspan director of agency sales and
marketing. "It's a first in our industry."
Steve Pello, Travelsavers executive vice president, said the
hotel program gives an "exclusive pricing advantage that corporate
and leisure America will be able to take advantage of."
Both the call center and hotel program will be marketed as
Worldspan products. The Travelsavers name will not be visible to
clients of non-Travelsavers agencies.
Travelsavers and Worldspan have worked together for the last
three years, with roughly 18% of the agency group's members using
Worldspan as a preferred vendor.
Worldspan also is building a product specifically for
Travelsavers called Travelsavers Res, which will enable the
agency's groups members to log onto the Travelsavers Web site and
make reservations through Worldspan. It is expected to be available
in the third quarter of this year.
The occasion for the announcement was Travelsavers' convention,
which, unlike its competitors in the agency network industry, is
held only once every five years.
Rick Mazza, Travelsavers president and chief executive officer,
said in an interview that the agency network is stronger than ever
with its membership reaching a combined $13 billion in annual sales
this year, with much of the growth coming from new corporate
agencies that have joined the last two years.
He predicted Travelsavers growth to $17 billion in the next
year. The agency group has now a 50-50 split between corporate and
leisure business, compared with 70% leisure and 30% corporate just
three years ago.
Travelsavers has attracted some large corporate agencies to its
ranks in the last several years, including $305 million Boeing
Travel in Seattle.
Mazza said the Travelsavers Travel Club, which has 38,000
members and offers travel discounts, has been one of Travelsavers'
keys in attracting corporate agencies that were hard hit by airline
commission cuts.
"They are looking at us as a marketing company that can be used
as a bridge to the leisure business," Mazza said. "We're seeing the
conversion of corporate business to leisure business."
Mazza said Travelsavers' five-year plan is to intensify its
focus as a "travel marketing company" as it expands in the
international arena.
Travelsavers has captured 25 members in Canada in the last year
and has 100 applications pending in that country. The group also
attracted 58 members in Mexico in the last year and opened an
office in London to expand the agency network into the UK and
Europe.
Travelsavers' exclusive territory concept and its new signage
program making the Travelsavers name more visible with consumers is
part of the international expansion plan, Mazza said.
In other news from the convention:
• Travelsavers unveiled an agreement with Hi-Mark Software of
Roswell, Ga., allowing Travelsavers agencies to offer corporate
accounts worldwide reporting and account sharing with other member
agencies.
The resulting program, called Travelsavers Net Tech Service
Bureau, consolidates travel spending data from any back-office
system in the world into one report and distribute the report
through the Internet to clients. Agencies and their clients can
access reports through a password-protected area of the
Travelsavers Web site.
• Travelsavers enhanced its co-branded Travelsavers Platinum
Visa Business card launched in May, adding a feature allowing
member agencies to receive a "royalty" -- a percentage of their
customers' spending with the card. The card is designed to for
small businesses.
"Our agencies are guaranteed a way of building a strong client
base" and compete against mega-agencies, said Betty Tilton, staff
vice president of Travelsavers.
The card has no annual fee, a credit limit up to $100,000,
quarterly reports and travel and business services discounts.
The group's preferred suppliers will insert flyers in monthly
statements, giving agencies a means of marketing leisure travel to
their business clients, Tilton said.