America's Vacation Center Commits $1 Million to Travel Agency Community

America's Vacation Center will commit $1 million to help the travel agency community by launching the "Travel Agent Stimulus Plan" , a turnkey business program created to assist all professional sellers of travel, including current home-based, storefront or call-center travel agents.

As part of the million-dollar financial commitment to be spent by April 30, America's Vacation Center's Travel Agent Stimulus Plan will immediately decrease the startup costs for professionals to start their own travel agency. In addition, the program includes a pledge by America's Vacation Center to significantly increase its consumer marketing to generate even more Live Leads, which are the primary source of bookings for its current network of Independent Affiliates and are available for new Independent Affiliates to quickly grow their businesses.

Live Leads are well-qualified customers offered exclusively to America's Vacation Center Independent Affiliates via the phone and Internet using patent-pending technology. Available 24/7, Live Leads enable professional sellers of travel to focus on selling and generating profits. Unlike other lead programs that force several travel agents to undercut each other for the same customer, America's Vacation Center's Independent Affiliates never share leads and each customer is only sent to one travel professional based on their areas of expertise.

The Travel Agent Stimulus Plan also includes an increased financial commitment by America's Vacation Center to provide live agency support for Independent Affiliates; selling advantages through over 25,000 cruise cabins and tour seats of blocked group space; an extensive library of vendor- and entrepreneurial-related trainings; worldwide brand recognition with American Express Travel; access to the Agent Power technology platform, which provides an array of best-in-class integrated applications including CRM, e-mail, an advanced booking engine, task reminders and a follow-up calendar; a personalized consumer website; and much more.

"The goal of the Travel Agent Stimulus Plan is to show support for the travel agency community by improving the odds of being successful in today's economy," said Brad Anderson, co-president of America's Vacation Center. "At America's Vacation Center, we are blessed to be having a stellar 2009, and we want to share that success with other travel professionals."

America's Vacation Center has a longstanding reputation in the travel industry for being one of the top-producing host travel agencies worldwide. The company has been a part of the American Express Travel Representative Network for over 20 years and was recently named "Travel Agency of the Year" by Carnival Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Oceania Cruises, MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines—an accomplishment no other travel agency has ever achieved.

Visit www.JoinAVC.com/Agent-Stimulus.