SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Officials at Yahoo! and National Leisure Group confirmed an
unannounced agreement that greatly expands Yahoo!'s cruise and
vacation package offerings.
Yahoo!, the Internet portal that reaches 180 million consumers
monthly, and NLG, 15-year-old private-label cruise and vacation
packager that's majority-owned by SoftBank Capital Partners,
quietly signed a multiyear marketing and revenue-sharing contract
in the fourth quarter, officials said.
NLG will be Yahoo!'s exclusive cruise and package provider in a
transaction-based arrangement.
The deal means that all of NLG's preferred vendors, including
virtually all of the major cruise lines, will be bookable through
Yahoo!
The vacation package vendors presented will include America West
Vacations, Apple Vacations, Away.com, Collette Tours, GoGo Worldwide, GWV
International, Insight Vacations, Site59, Trafalgar, Trans National Travel and
Travel Impressions.
Yahoo! has a long-standing agreement with Travelocity.com,
which provides the air, car and hotel offerings on the site.
Neda Nazem, business development manager of Yahoo! Travel, said
the company is happy with its partner, Travelocity. But, regarding
cruises and vacations, there was a gap in Yahoo! Travel's offerings
and it wanted to improve them by tapping NLG's strengths.
Without publicity, Yahoo! did a soft launch of its new Yahoo!
Travel Vacations area at www.yahoovacationstore.com in January.
This new Yahoo! vacation package and cruise area is currently "a
work in progress," Nazem said. Its complete cruise lineup will be
introduced in several weeks, she said, and the site's
full-functionality -- with the goal to have virtually everything
bookable on line -- is six months away.
Currently, consumers can book there last-minute weekend specials
from Site59 and other packages from companies like Travel
Impressions and Away.com. Cruises are offered by lines such as
Royal Caribbean Cruises and Celebrity Cruises.
Currently, some of the products can be booked on line and others
require telephone bookings.
NLG is powering this Yahoo! cruise and package area with its own
booking engine and will provide customer relationship management
tools and all customer service, including sales centers in Woburn,
Mass., and Virginia Beach, Va.
For NLG's vendors, the Yahoo! deal means their offerings will be
much higher profile on a leading Internet brand.
"This is absolutely a home run for us," said Site59 chief
executive officer Michelle Peluso. "We can set our own margins and
hence share revenues with players that drive markets and
sales."
Peluso explained that her company's contract -- and this is true
of the other vendors as well -- is not with Yahoo!, but with NLG,
which owns a piece of the last-minute inventory packager. When a
consumer books a package on Yahoo!, Site59 shares that revenue with
NLG.
With cruises and vacation packages being so hot in the travel
industry, Nazem of Yahoo! believes the site's key differentiator
will be its ability to make virtually all of these products
bookable on line.