You know, I looked for this list last week and didn’t see it. Then mid-morning yesterday, it dawned on me that it might be out this week. After writing about this Power List the last 4 years (because YTB has made the list all 4 years) I can go directly to the URL without even needing to look it up. I’ve enjoyed the publication (I enjoy it all year long actually) and it’s fascinating to see the chess match that goes on in the travel industry.

Ironically, Travel Weekly appears to see it as a chess match as well, but on a much grander scale – the last decade. There have been some new faces (like YTB) that have shown up in the last few years and others that have either gone completely out of business or have been acquired by or merged with other companies. (More of the latter from what I can tell.)

The biggest surprise to me was who knocked off the #1 and #2 positions the last few years. American Express and Carlson Wagonlit have had a lock on the the number one and number two spots respectively until this year. (American Express has had a lock on #1 since 1992, when the Power List first came out.)

Online giant Expedia jumped over both this year to take the number one spot.

Yep, online travel is now king.

The list also shrunk in size this year (from 61 total to 52) because – well 2009 was a rough year for travel. Bookings may have been up – but with prices cut in half to get people on board ships, into hotel rooms, and on vacation you literally needed to sell twice as much in order to even maintain your spot from last year.

How did YTB fair in all this?

Not too bad actually. YTB did drop from 25 to 29.

Considering the economy, the incessant and dysfunctional obsession from industry “professionals” about YTB’s MLM model and our fine group of ambulance chasers who can’t quite grasp the meaning of the word “NO” – 29 is actually pretty good.

On the other hand, most clients who book with YTB don’t know (or don’t really care) that there’s an MLM arm attached to the company. Technology plays a big part in that.

I’d highly recommend taking some time to read Travel Weekly’s cover Story “10 Years In Review” to attain their perspective on how technology has changed the face of travel. I’ve been writing about it for years here – but I’m just one of those MLM “Yahoo’s” – a newcomer to the industry who really doesn’t know how things work. (Or so some would have you think.)

Turns out that the internet and technology has not only changed the rankings considerably over the last ten years, but it’s essential in the growth and viability of the vast majority of the agencies who are still around. That’s not to say high touch and high service doesn’t continue to play a role like most of the old dogs would have you believe. (The ones who demand this type of service from YTB in order to legitimize the model.)

A total focus on high touch and high service however, would have certainly landed YTB on the outside of this Power List looking in.

Back in 2001 when YTB was founded, they saw a trend towards technology. Today, over $50 BILLION in travel was purchased online last year between Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Travelocity. While all four certainly produced top 10 rankings, Travelocity didn’t provide sales numbers and wasn’t included in this years rankings. (See “What happened to…” in the Travel Weekly report.)

Those who have embraced this shift and taken advantage of the paradigm shift from brick and mortar to click and order have done very well for themselves over the last ten years.

Those who haven’t? Well, you can now find them on various message boards, forums and some have even created their own blogs to bitch and complain about how MLM not technology has ruined their business.

Change is a little more difficult for some – and honestly, some may never come around. (I certainly wouldn’t count on it.) I wouldn’t worry about it however. They’re the ones who are faced with another Power List with the name YTB Travel Network in it for the forth year in a row.

Instead, embrace the technology YTB has provided with new an innovative ways of booking travel.

In fact, you can do that tonight if you’d like. Carnival will be featured once again on our booking engine with yet another “Sail-A-Thon” to wind down Carnival Month with YTB. It’s a live 4 hour blowout sale and you could get up to $160 Cash Back from Carnival if you book with us tonight.

Technology and travel…

It appears to be the right mix if you ask me. ;-P

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I picked up on a story Monday that I thought might be a good topic for today’s post but didn’t realize how timing would play out with President Obama speaking to the Nation last night. I’ve got to admit, our new President is one of the most eloquent speakers I’ve seen in some time. I can appreciate a well delivered speech when I see one and he needs to get Congress on his side when he submits his tax and spending plans to Congress on Thursday.

Last week, President Barack Obama signed the sprawling $787 billion economic stimulus package into law, saying it will help the struggling U.S. economy but warning that the recovery process will be challenging. I would agree with the warning, because it will end up costing over $1 Trillion when it’s all said and done. (It needs to be paid back, you realize that?) The Market reacted to the news by selling off and savvy investors realize how much this bailout will hurt when it’s time to pay it back.

Right or wrong about this stimulus package being good or bad, bailing out America seems to be a hot topic these days and there are large numbers who appear to want a piece of the action, including the ASTA. I don’t know if you saw this editorial cartoon in Travel Weekly the day after the inauguration, but it spoke volumes about how demanding and desperate this industry is. I’ve had it up to here with all this talk about how everything is fine and things are “great” when actions certainly don’t provide a very good foundation to those statements. With all the victim talk we’ve read about day after day, the mud slinging and spin on the “issues” with Travel MLM’s, Agencies either downsizing, or disappearing overnight, and involuntary bankruptcy filed by Agents themselves things aren’t as rosy as some claim. Things have gotten so bad for the industry that after decades of fighting to keep banks out of the industry, all of the sudden Agents are willing to look the other way.

And now we find out that the ASTA DID have it’s hand out for part of the $787 billion to stimulate there struggling model once again.

“The inclusion of a direct lending program in the House-passed version of this bill raised hope among ASTA’s small business travel agents,” said Chris Russo, ASTA president and chair. “Sadly, Congressional negotiators, meeting behind closed doors, chose to remove the direct lending provision mere hours before the bill was complete. Whatever small cost savings they achieved came at the expense of the small business community.”

In a letter sent last week, Russo asked President Obama to call for the swift passage of legislation to expand the authority of the Small Business Administration to lend directly to small business owners.

Based on what I heard last night, they’ll be given another shot at even more money to be spent by this new administration next year.

But I have to ask why the ASTA even needs this money in the first place when everyone is telling me that business is better than ever? Some certainly know how to talk the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk we get this? Very odd don’t you think?

The ASTA is still pitching (or promoting) how important they are to the Travel Agent community after this failed attempt to help the industry while even they admit that “the brand damage from the old days when ASTA was perceived as too political”. The ASTA claims agents need an “attitude adjustment” (finally, something we can agree on!) but Agents need the ASTA to help them.

To be fair, I have seen a couple of issues they’ve been helpful in over the last year, but apparently it’s not enough for the majority of the Travel Agent community to shift their perceptions concerning how this organization can help them. Honestly, I’ve come to the conclusion most of these agents who don’t join are just more comfortable about complaining than they are about effective change, so this plea by the ASTA in this article will fall on deaf ears. In addition, most agent don’t truly understand what leverage can do to benefit them. Instead, most ridicule the concept and poke fun at it being only an MLM concept.

It is however comforting to see that even the ASTA is having difficulty getting their message across to a group who believes they know better, and not willing to change their flavor of Kool-aid, because it sounds too much like MLM.

Maloney said that ASTA now has some 200 Premium members and 4,000 Core members, a number that he said “we can grow,” if agents are aware of the range of services they can get from ASTA for “77 cents a day” – the per diem cost of annual Core membership.

This “.77 cents a day” is taken directly from MLM, (or so they think) and it doesn’t play well. Instead of seeing the benifit, they reject this concept because most have been trained to. (It’s also called brainwashing.)

Time will tell if this industry wakes up and pulls ITSELF out of this funk they’re in. I see people everyday who are making smart choices and even sacrifices today that will pay off for them in the long run. I promise you’ll see a good number of people who will come out of this extremely wealthy because of it.

I doubt it will be because of a handout or bailout, it rarely is.

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I have to wonder why nobodies talking about AmEx becoming a bank holding company? From what I’ve read about this in Travel Weekly, this idea of any Travel Agency being owned by a bank would be considered an unfair business advantage.

AmEx is asking to borrow $3.5 billion which means that the largest travel agency in the world will now be owned by a bank. Shares of American Express fell $2.35, or 10.5 percent when news first broke, to $20.05 November 11th. Shares continue to fall as the stock closed at $19.64, its lowest point since 1998.

“For decades, from the late ’60s into the ’90s, travel agents fought to keep state and federal banks out of the travel business, regarding them as sources of unfair competition. Agents were often concerned about the competitive impact of cross promotions, whereby a bank might offer a travel benefit to someone opening a new bank account.”

All this fighting, for now at least, seems to have been forgotten. It’s been more than a week, and while I’ve been attempting to follow this story, there’s been not one word spoken about this on any forums or boards I could find. Even after this stories been printed.

Stephen Feeley, director of communications for American Express Business Travel, said the change in status would have no effect on the company’s travel agency business. “It will be business as usual.” However the tax dollars given to American Express could produce an unfair advantage over any other agency, like possibly credit needs to expand, and that I’m sure won’t sit well with the rest of the industry.

American Express, which operates two banks in addition to its travelers check, credit card and travel businesses, won approval to become a bank holding company subject to regulation by the Federal Reserve.

Joanna Lambert, vice president for corporate communications for American Express Co., declined to comment on the report or even confirm that an application had been made or American Express would “build a fence” around a loan to the company to prohibit the agency from having access to the billions it “bank” now has access too. In addition, there’s a concern about the competitive impact of cross promotions of how a bank might offer a travel benefit to someone opening a new bank account.

Yet, not one word from even one travel agent.

Nice to know some have their priorities straight.

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