Travel Agent - August 6, 2007 - (Page 8)

News Vital Signs than 30 percent—but it’s been a very solid year for us and surprisingly, whatever happened in Glasgow and the poor performance of the dollar doesn’t seem to have an impact on business,” Zenner says. Under Zenner’s leadership, Travel Bound, which only sells its itineraries through travel agents, has a big year coming up. Towards the end of 2007, the company will launch a booking tool on its web site featuring all the products of Gullivers Travel Associates, Travel Bound’s parent company. In the future, Zenner says he would like to explore distributing Travel Bound’s product through global distribution systems. (www.disneytravelagents.com), Maryellen Kline was announced as director of travel agency sales late last month. Kline, a veteran of Disney Destinations, will lead the travel agency field and inside sales teams that support Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney. Kline’s previous positions at Disney include district sales manager and regional sales director for the eastern region. Prior to joining Disney in 2003, she held sales positions with Costa Cruise Lines, Premier Cruise Lines, Delta Vacations and USM Field Resources. A New Array of Agent Champions Your clients aren’t the only ones on the move this summer: Tour operator execs are just as busy, taking on new roles within their companies or pursuing opportunities at other companies. Here is a roundup of some of the more recent executive shifts. Earlier this year, Juan Tamarit, an alum of Travel Bound, joined the Greece-focused Homeric Tours (www.home rictours.com) as executive vice president of business development. Almost right away he went to work establishing preferred partnership agreements with consortia and suppliers. “Homeric has been focused on the individual travel agents and that was one of the key elements of having me come on board,” Tamarit says. “Because of our prominence among agencies, this was a key market of growth for us and at the same time, we are looking at additional products and new destinations.” So far, Tamarit has secured preferred status with Vacation.com, TravelSavers and Cruise Planners, as well as a few others. New destinations include western and central Europe, southeast Asia, Croatia and an expansion of Homeric’s Italy product. In October, the tour operator also will offer real-time online booking on its web site. Plans for 2007 Late last month Travel Bound (www. booktravelbound.com) promoted Nico Zenner from his post as vice president of sales and marketing for the company to general manager. In fact, Zenner unofficially took over the general management responsibilities of Travel Bound in January, when Tamarit left for Homeric Tours. The company has attributed its strong growth since then to Zenner. “Sales have been picking up quite nicely for the first half year. We’ve seen high double-digit growth—not more Executives making moves this summer are (from left) Maryellen Kline of Disney Destinations, Nico Zenner of Travel Bound, and Juan Tamarit of Homeric Tours “Agents are OK to pick up the phone and book through our web site,” he says, “but a lot of bookings are done on the GDSs and I’d like to explore that. We’re not truly a packager, so we’re a little unique in the tour operator world, but the hotels that we sell would be a good match for anything already on the GDS.” New Agent Contact at Disney Destinations Meanwhile, over at Disney Destinations Kline said she expects to continue to work closely with agents in her new role. “That’s really what this position is all about: increasing sales with our travel agency partners,” she says. “I speak with a lot of them on a daily basis.” As always, Disney has a lot going on this year and well into 2008, but the details could not be discussed at press Continued on page 10 8. TravelAgent August 6, 2007 http://www.disneytravelagents.com http://www.homerictours.com http://www.homerictours.com http://www.booktravelbound.com http://www.booktravelbound.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Travel Agent - August 6, 2007

Contents Editor's Letter News You Can Use Cover Story - Passports and Visas: What Clients Should Know About Them EUROPE: Capella Debuts Two Properties This Year LAS VEGAS: The De-Theming of Luxor HAWAII: Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea Renovates CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA: Cruising the Panama Canal Lavishly CARIBBEAN & BAHAMAS: Bahamas’ Grand Isle Resort & Spa News and Notes Meet the U.S.V.I.’s Tourism Commissioner CRUISES: Defining Regent Seven Seas HOTELS: InterContinental Harbor Court Baltimore Agent Exchange Luxury Travel Expo Update Ad and Edit Index Classified Marketplace People & Places

Travel Agent - August 6, 2007

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