ITMCs Step Up International Plans
The Internet travel management companies are accelerating international expansion plans for 2009 as many of their clients broaden the scopes of their travel programs and look to consolidate suppliers globally. Egencia, Orbitz for Business and Travelocity Business in the past several weeks announced different expansion approaches, but each so far focuses more on serving current clients than signing new clients outside the United States.
Orbitz for Business this month announced the launch of its Orbitz for Business International service in Canada—the first country to go live with the Travelport Traversa-based multilingual and multicurrency version of the platform.
Canadian Travelport Classic users are migrating to Orbitz's international platform now, with support services handled in a U.S. call center.
Before year-end, Orbitz for Business plans to launch the international version of its tool in the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and Australia in the first and second quarters of 2009, respectively, according to COO and senior vice president Dean Sivley. Sister company ebookers.com's business travelers are testing the U.K. system.
This month, Orbitz for Business announced its agreement with TRX expanded to provide international ticketing fulfillment and call center services out of its Berlin customer service center. Domestically, TRX currently supplies Orbitz with its Correx mid-office and TravelTrax reporting software applications.
Last month, Travelocity Business announced its international plans by entering into an agreement to join travel management company network Radius, becoming the first ITMC to join such an organization.
Some current clients will transition to the joint TBiz-Radius fulfillment partnership in the first quarter of 2009. The Asia/Pacific fulfillment partnership with Travelocity-owned Zuji and WNS Global Services will be phased out, according to TBiz president Lesley Harris.
Egencia, which said it now derives more than half of its revenue from outside of the United States, this month opened point-of-sale services in Switzerland and Gurgaon, India. The India location becomes Egencia's third point of sale in the Asia/Pacific region, following launches in China and Australia in the past year. Including Switzerland, the travel management company now has 14 points of sale.
"We are not looking to serve the U.S. traveler who is going to India on occasion," said Egencia vice president of Asia/Pacific Pam Keenan Fritz. "We are actually looking to serve the subsidiaries of those companies that are doing domestic and international travel, but have their home base in India itself."
As midmarket travel programs seek more multinational and online services, ITMCs see an opportunity to build on their U.S. track record.
"U.S. customers are taking on more responsibilities, so you want to expand with them and keep the business with as few providers as you can," said Orbitz's Sivley. "We are expanding the deals we can swing at dramatically by offering up these capabilities."