Orbitz for Business president Frank Petito, who has led the travel management company since mid-June, has started to implement his strategy for the travel management company, which includes building off the international momentum developed by former senior vice president and COO of the travel management company Dean Sivley, who became president and CEO of travel insurance company Travel Guard in May.
Petito, an Orbitz veteran, also plans to integrate preferred Orbitz leisure supplier programs into the TMC and make Orbitz For Business even more critical to the strategy of Orbitz Worldwide president and CEO Barney Harford, who took the top spot in January
(BTNonline, Jan. 7).Using Travelport's Traversa online system as the underlying technology for the Orbitz for Business International product, the TMC is operating in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. In the next six to nine months, Petito expects to launch new points of sale in some non-English-speaking countries in Europe and possibly Asia/Pacific. "There are folks who are more advanced in their international evolution," Petito said. "They've got a bigger presence overseas and that's something we need to build over the coming years. That's going to be a longer-term play."
Not on the horizon is the pursuit of clients based in new international markets with local sales and account management teams.
"I don't want to come across as being exclusively focused on profitability, but I don't know that I am quite ready to build out a huge sales force in advance of having a pretty clear booked business there," said Petito.
Another part of Petito's strategy is tailoring for the corporate market preferred supplier programs from its parent company, especially for its small and midsize clients. The company recently reintroduced its hotel merchant program into Orbitz for Business, offering its clients more than 80,000 preferred hotel properties. "I want to bring great deals to our corporate travelers," he said. "At Orbitz, we facilitate the sale of $10 billion worth of travel. That's a scaled business."
Petito previously served as senior vice president of corporate development for parent company Orbitz Worldwide. He joined Orbitz in 2002 and served on the executive team that steered the company through two initial public offerings and its 2004 acquisition by Cendant.