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| Roger E. Block will lead the newly combined entity. |
Travel Leaders Associates, Results! Travel and Vacation.com have announced plans to merge into the Travel Leaders Network, which will encompass nearly 7,000 locations in the United States and Canada.
Offering both franchise (Associate) and consortium (Member) solutions, Travel Leaders Network will be led by President Roger E. Block, formerly president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group. Block reports directly to John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Network and Leisure Group.
With over $17 billion in annual sales volume, Travel Leaders Network is comprised of more than one third of North America’s leading travel agencies and is now the largest seller of luxury travel, cruises, river cruises and tours in the travel agency industry, Travel Leaders said. All of the participating agencies that previously belonged to either Travel Leaders Franchise Group (Travel Leaders Associates and Results! Travel) or Vacation.com were notified today that they continue to be Members within Travel Leaders Network.
Existing Travel Leaders Associates will retain sole licensing rights for the exclusive use of the “Travel Leaders” brand name. In turn, all Members of both Results! Travel and Vacation.com will automatically become Members of Travel Leaders Network, while qualifying Members will be provided the option of becoming Travel Leaders Associates.
“As our industry’s landscape continues to evolve and consolidate, so must we,” said Lovell in a release announcing the new entity.
The new Travel Leaders Network will continue to offer varying levels of participation. Apart from the combined organization’s new name, participating agencies will see few changes before 2017, Travel Leaders said. Among the major changes that participating agencies will see include:
Agent Profiler – By 2017, bios from all qualifying agents from Results! Travel and Vacation.com will be added to Travelleaders.com’s existing Agent Profiler directory, thus further elevating the award-winning program’s search engine optimization (SEO) for every participating agent. The greater SEO value enables Travel Leaders Network to be better positioned to take on external competition.
Annual Conference – Beginning in 2017, Travel Leaders Network will convene an “overlapping” convention in which Travel Leaders Associates will share their final day with the first day for Members from the rest of Travel Leaders Network. However, Associates and Members of Travel Leaders Network continue to enjoy separate sets of sessions, training and networking events tailored for their specific needs.
Marketing – While Travel Leaders Associates will continue to enjoy marketing specifically branded for their needs, the blended marketing team will be more focused on providing innovative solutions and additional marketing publications designed to break through, more effectively competing with forces beyond the traditional travel agency space.
Technology Access – User adoption is critical to future technology development, so as more agents are actively using a particular technology, the greater Travel Leaders Network’s ability to invest and improve. Based on participation agreements, agents will have access to programs including CruisePRO, AgentMate and corporate business solutions.
Agent Universe – By 2017, each of the existing agency extranets will migrate to one Agent Universe platform. However, content will be delineated based on individual agency participation agreements.
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