MARINA DEL REY, Calif. -- Leisure Travel Group, a West Coast
consortium here, contracted with Apollo Travel Services to provide
its computerized reservations system to the group's 123 members.
All four major CRS vendors bid for the business, according to
Michelle Morgan, LTG's executive director.
The consortium's member agencies -- most based in California,
with one each in Hawaii and Utah -- process $600 million a year in
sales. More than half of its members, according to sources, already
are Apollo agents, while about four in 10 are on Sabre and just a
handful use Amadeus and Worldspan.
LTG's Apollo agents will revert immediately to the terms of the
consortium's contract, Morgan said. Those who are not, in theory,
would do so as soon as their existing contracts with other CRS
vendors expire.
Converting in midterm can be costly; the vendor being displaced
invariably seeks hefty damages for the agency's failure to fulfill
its contract.
Asked if Apollo would imdemnify an LTG agency that wished to
break a deal with its current vendor, Leo van Dorp, acting U.S.
manager for Apollo's owner, Galileo International, said, "We'll
look at each case on an individual basis." LTG is the top-producing
regional consortium for such firms as Crystal Cruises, Seabourn
Cruises, San Francisco, and San Jose, Calif.-based Classic
Vacations,
Morgan said the new pact would provide members with a package of
hardware, training and marketing support services. "We're looking
at this agreement to help us build sales from within our existing
membership," she said, "not as a carrot to attract new
members."