Vacation.com Conference: Agency Awards and Power of Partnership Awards

Vacation.com presented the 2008 Agency Awards and the Power of the Partnership (POP) awards to honor top member agencies and preferred suppliers during its recent 10th Annual Conference, held at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

The 2008 Agency Awards honored the members in North America who produced the highest amount of preferred supplier revenue, as well as agencies with largest year-over-year growth within the last year.

“The Vacation.com mission has always been to facilitate The Power of the Partnership through exceptional preferred supplier offerings for our members and their clients and it is important for us to acknowledge those agencies that use this partnership to their full advantage,” said Steve Tracas, president and CEO, Vacation.com.

Awards were presented to nine agencies in two categories: Chairman’s Award for the highest preferred supplier sales, and President’s Award for the largest preferred supplier sales growth in three revenue categories.

Chairman’s Award:
U.S. Agency – Cruise.com, Port Everglades, FL.
Canadian Agency – Merit Travel Group Inc., Toronto, ON.

President’s Award:
U.S. Agencies – Continental Travel Group, Coconut Grove, FL;  Campbell Travel-Landmark Vacations, Dallas, TX; Cain Travel, Boulder, CO; Crucon Cruise Outlet, Center Harbor, N.H.
Canadian Agenies –  Solaway Travel Ltd., Burnaby, BC; Eglinton Travel Downsview, ON and BNW Travel Management Ltd., Vancouver, BC.

The POP Awards honored the preferred supplier partners who consistently met the needs of member agencies. The awards were distributed based on votes from Vacation.com members.

“The POP Awards were designed to reinforce the value of a Vacation.com partnership by recognizing and rewarding those suppliers that present quality products and programs to our members and their clients,” said Tracas.

POP awards were bestowed upon 14 companies in 11 categories.

U.S. Tour Partner of the Year: Globus Family of Brands

Canada Tour Partner of the Year: Signature Vacations

Hotel & Resort Partner of the Year: Marriott International

U.S. Insurance Partner of the Year: AIG Travel Guard

Canada Insurance Partner of the Year: RBC Insurance

Car Rental Partner of the Year: The Hertz Corporation

U.S. Airline/Consolidator Partner of the Year: Air New Zealand

Canada Airline/Consolidator Partner of the Year: Intair

Rail/Ground Transportation Partner of the Year: Amtrak

President’s Partner of the Year: Globus Family of Brands

Premium Cruise Partner of the Year: Holland America Line

Luxury Cruise Partner of the Year: Crystal Cruises

Specialty Cruise Partner of the Year: Viking River Cruise

Contemporary Cruise Partner of the Year: Royal Caribbean International.

Members submitted votes over a two-month period via www.AgentNet.com. Judging was based on a specific criteria including quality of service; marketing support provided to agencies; value delivered by suppliers; point of differentiation offered; reliability, responsiveness and effective problem-solving; and overall commitment to the travel agent channel. Visit www.AgentNet.com.