TravelHUB recently launched an Intranet system for its registered
agents that allows them to offer private-labeled tours on Web pages
created by six of Far & Wide Travel Corp.’s tour companies.
The program, introduced in May, allows agents registered with
TravelHUB to “customize tours to every corner of the globe with
their own agency imprint,” said Gary Bilbao, president of the
Marlton, N.J.-based company. The Far & Wide companies
participating in TravelHUB’s private-label program are Central
Holidays, Zeus Tours, Tourlite International, Journeys Unlimited,
Regina Tours and Spanish Heritage Tours, Bilbao said.
The private-label tours appear in a pop-up window on the
agency’s own site, with the agency name listed at the top of the
page and the contact information at the bottom.
A key selling point for the private-label program, Bilbao
pointed out, is that agents can sell the tour operators’ products
as their own without any concern of agent bypass, since only the
agency’s name and not the supplier’s appears on the tour package.
In fact, the idea for the private-label tour product came from
discussions with retailers in which “an agency would say, ‘I don’t
want a link to Central Holidays, but I wouldn’t mind having their
tours on our Web site,’” Bilbao said.
Agents receive full commission on any resulting sales, just as
they would on the sale of any other Far & Wide tour
package.
The program allows participating suppliers to edit their
packages’ descriptions via the Web, said Bilbao, a former Worldspan
employee who co-founded TravelHUB in 1995. The Far & Wide
suppliers can edit tour descriptions via a Web browser, changing
dates, prices or copy, and the changes are reflected immediately on
the agents’ sites.
That technology on the supplier side also makes things easier on
the agents who list their specials.
“They can keep a current list of specials without contacting a
Webmaster to go in there and set the HTML up,” Bilbao said.
TravelHUB doesn’t cap commissions, nor does it collect a fee on
any resulting sales. Instead, it collects $50 monthly fees from its
more than 900 registered agencies for its weekly e-mail
broadcasting service, in which agencies can select and “broadcast”
two daily specials private-label or not to Web surfers searching
TravelHUB for deals.
Agents also receive marketing reports detailing how many people
have viewed their specials, allowing them to gauge which specials
are generating the most interest.
The specials are displayed on TravelHUB’s site, which receives
100,000 visitors a month and is linked to more than 800 sites; they
are also featured in TravelHUB’s HUB Club newsletter, which reaches
35,000 subscribers.
In September, Bilbao said, TravelHUB plans to add more tour
operators to its program, to coincide with the release of those
operators’ new travel products for 2003.
TravelHUB currently is offering agents a 30-day free trial of
its broadcast-specials program.
Call 888-772-7772. Web site: www.travelhub.com.
