YTB International Jumps to #26 on Power List
I’ve been wondering all year just where YTB International would place in this years Power List and I’m very pleased and honored to announce that YTB International has jumped 9 spots to #26 overall with $414.5 Million in Travel Sales for 2007.
This large jump in the rankings from YTB International is tied with Christopherson Andova Travel as the largest increase of any of the “Power Agencies” moving up the list 9 spots. YTB’s ranking rose from #35 in last years list to #26 for the current year.
Some of the 2007 Developments about YTB in Travel Weekly Include:
- ARC sales of $29.7 million
– $211 million fulfilled by third parties, known as Referring Travel Agents
– 85% of sales from business, 10% leisure, 5% meetings and conventions.
– Admitted as a member of the Direct Selling Association.
– Launched into Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada .
– Acquired Sunrise Travel in Canada
– August 2007 National Convention in St. Louis had attendance of more than 10,000, up from 3,200 in previous year.
– Launched YTB E-Campus
- Launched YTB Cars
- Held Funshine Traval Trade Shows in Orlando and San Diego with attendance of 5,000 and 3,000 respectively.
– Acquired American Destinations, a tour operator specializing in educational travel.
- Formed relationship with Shanghai Spring Travel in China to develop China and European tour programs.
A few “critics” had speculated that the 2007 Power List was comprised of “fees” or other “non travel” related sales instead of “travel sales”. I personally tried to educate those with this illusion about the fees, sighting SEC filings, and other documentation to no avail. This year it seems that Travel Weekly was also fed up with the ignorance of those who just won’t admit that YTB Travel Network is a real Travel Company.
“YTB has to be singled out because it faced another year of controversy because of the structure of its business – losing IATA and Royal Caribbean accreditation. Editors checked with the company multiple times to ensure that its reported total represented only direct travel sales, not referrals or any other nonqualified revenues.”
And some wonder why I won’t allow comments from these same ignorant Traditionalists who claim to know everything they need to know about YTB. I’ve told everyone before here, the truth always has a way of coming to light, and I’m not going to waste any more time with those who simply want to sling mud around here or elsewhere on the internet.
These ARE travel sales, so our Traditionalists need to get over it. They also need to accept the fact that suppliers are not going to cast off these large sales simply because some don’t agree with the model YTB uses. I posted as recently as Friday how Carnival “get’s YTB”, that YTB generates considerable revenue for suppliers who support the model.
Other notable information in this list includes American Express Travel and Carlson Wagonlit who remain #1 and #2 respectively. In regards to the top Online Agencies, Expedia (#3), Orbitz (#6), Travelocity (#7) and Priceline (#8) all combined for $45.6 billion in Travel Sales, up $5.6 billion from $40 billion in 2007. Expedia also had the largest increase in sales of any of the Top 50 Power List Agencies, from $17.2 Billion in 2006 to $20 Billion in 2007.
One other note I’d like to add is that it’s now published that YTB International did acquire American Destinations, Inc. With Travel Weekly being named as a Top 50 Media Power in the trade publication category, I wonder if this documentation is enough for the formal apology someone said he would give Regina Osei for posting what she obviously knew to be true.
So there we have it YTB; our second year on the Power List and the largest gainer up the rankings. We all know our goal for 2008 is $1 Billion in travel sales and when we do, it will be another large jump in the rankings for this company.
With the National Convention just around the corner, I’d be willing to bet there will be some major announcements to help us achieve just that.
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Tags: Power List, Travel Agent Issues, Travel MLM, Travel Weely, YTB International
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