TRAVERSE CITY One of Michigans largest travel agencies has rolled out an on-line presence aimed at recruiting more corporate customers. Passageways also hopes its new Internet sales site will keep customers from shopping at the big national on-line-only travel sites.
In the companys third web iteration brochure, to referral and now to eCommerce Passageways now offers travel planning as well as corporate tracking and reporting features from PwaysPlus.Com, the same services it has offered through its agents since 1980.
Right after commissions dropped on the airline side, a lot of agencies told customers they wanted to talk to them about cruises, tours and vacations, but not airline tickets, said Passageways President Tom Rockne. The airline booking business flowed to Orbitz.Com and Travelocity.Com.
Thats where Rockne figured his people-intensive agency had a business edge over the faceless dot com competition. Passageways employs 200 agents in 18 Michigan cities. Passageways also is one of a thousand or so Carlson Wagonlit Travel franchised locations in the United States; giving it an international support staff of about 4,000 agents as well.
We have 50 toll-free numbers even if you book on-line, he said. When you have a problem with your travel plans, there will be a neighbor there to help you solve them.
Some 45 percent of Passageways business is on the leisure side, 45 percent corporate and 10 percent group. It manages corporate accounts that equal tens of millions of dollars each year, to the $99 round-trip leisure fare. Bookings are running around the $100 million annual rate, Rockne said.
We have specialists in each of those areas and the percentage of those specialists varies, Rockne said. In Novi, where we handle metro corporate business, we are focused more on corporate, but have leisure agents there as well. Our downtown Traverse City office is leisure focused, but upstairs we have four corporate travel specialists servicing accounts in Northern Michigan.
Rockne said his largest corporate accounts include Volkswagen of America, the City of Detroit, Michigan State University, Northwood Institute and Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. His agency handles about 200,000 clients each year.
In todays environment, we feel to hold the attention of airlines and cruise ship companies you have to be around $100 million, Rockne said.
And now with the help of his new eCommerce web sites, he said, Passageways will explore the potential of Internet sales.
