NEW YORK -- In what company officials concede was a nod to the
importance of travel agents in selling package vacations, adventure
travel Web site GORP.com (Great Outdoors Recreation Pages) is
launching a new, agents-only site that provides commission
incentives to agents who sell products offered by GORP suppliers.
The site, located at www.gorptravel.com, went live earlier this month and
is accessible to agents who create an account and password using
their ARC identification number.
Launched in 1995 as a content-focused site that provided
information and reviews of adventure-travel destinations, products
and equipment, GORP launched a booking engine on its site in
February to sell adventure travel vacations.
The company has since compiled a catalog of roughly 4,000 trips
from more than 400 suppliers, which it offers direct-to-consumer
through its site.
"We are more than happy with the consumer booking engine, and we
feel that will continue to be a major instrument of growth for us,"
said Michael Steiner, vice president of on-line travel for
GORP.com.
"But we think it's clear the market also is full of consumers
who still aren't comfortable with buying a big-ticket item like a
vacation, especially an adventure-travel vacation, through the
Internet. There are types of questions that come up that just don't
lend themselves to a completely on-line experience."
As an incentive for agents to sell GORP products, the company is
offering 10% commissions through the new site as well as a bonus
program that provides cash rewards based on the number of trips of
at least $1,000 booked through the site. The bonuses range from $55
for five trips booked, to $465 for 20 trips.
There are 1,200 agencies registered as users of the GORP.com
site, and their sales represent about 20% of GORP's total
business.
Despite the launch of this new effort, Steiner said he doesn't
see the percentage of business going to agencies to change
significantly.
"We hope to do much more business with the agencies, but we are
a business that's growing in all facets and this is just one of
them," he said. "When all is said and done, I think we continue to
expect agent sales to represent about 20% to 30% of our total sales
revenue."
Eventually, Steiner said, he would like to see GORP act in
partnership with major agencies in much the same way that tour
operators and other suppliers do.
GORP's catalog of trips is searchable through the agents' site
by a number of different indicators, including level of difficulty,
geographic location, price and appropriate age ranges.
Agents who perform a search will be informed of any equipment
their client would need on the trip, and the site keeps detailed
demographic information to help guide agents as to what trips might
appeal to what customers.
In addition to being able to use the gorptravel.com site to
browse and book packaged adventure travel for their customers,
agents will be provided with exclusive GORP content, including
destination reviews and offers of special announcements from GORP
suppliers.
GORP will provide a dedicated toll-free phone number for agents
who have questions about specific types of travel as well as live
on-line and voice-chat conferencing with GORP representatives.
According to Steiner, the company also is preparing to launch a
video-chat feature through the site. It should be available later
this year.
To further strengthen its ties with agencies, Steiner said, the
site is forming a Travel Agent Advisory Board that will work to
solicit and formulate ways in which the company can better serve
agencies, including employing different types of incentive and
commission structures and gathering ideas about the sorts of
content agents would like to see.