<B>Maritz Breaking GTM Ties</B>
By Megan Hjermstad
Maritz Travel Co. has signed an agreement with German-based TUI Group and Australian-based Internet Travel Group to form a global joint venture. Maritz will continue to work as part of the GTM organization and provide travel management services for GTM clients until January 2001, when the new joint venture agreement goes into effect. Maritz at this time could not provide any details of the terms of the deal.
The TUI Group, which is owned by Preussag AG, has more than 3,500 agencies--located primarily in Germany and the United Kingdom and also in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland--that are part of the First Travel Management International franchise organization. ITG formerly was part of the GTM organization.
"We look forward to establishing a streamlined organization that will provide the best available global travel management program for our clients," said Bob Diekmann, corporate vice president of international business development for Maritz.
Bonner Fulenwider, travel manager for Maritz GTM customer Houston-based Lyondell Chemical Corp., is uncertain about how the decision will affect him, and is waiting to hear recommendations from Maritz. Fulenwider is pleased with the consolidated data he gets now and the relationship he has with GTM partners The Travel Co. in London, Protravel in Paris and VCK Travel in Holland.
The futures of the GTM organization and First Travel Management International, both affected by the joint venture, also are uncertain. Maritz would not comment on whether Maritz and TUI Group will branch off to create a new franchise organization or whether Maritz and ITG will be brought into the First Travel Management fold with the TUI Group.
Martin Metzler, vice president of strategy and international development for the U.S.-based consortia group Hickory Travel Systems that is part of First Travel Management, said, "There are obviously a lot of organizational as well as legal implications involved. We're currently working very intensely behind the scenes to resolve those issues, but it is far from being brought to mutual conclusions. There is certainly a conflict of interest, and there are far-reaching implications involved."
Metzler said it would be premature to comment on what First Travel Management would do if it lost the TUI Group, whose business travel agencies bring in approximately $3 billion to $4 billion in annual air volume. "There are other players--substantial players--in the market interested in filling in the gaps," he said.
GTM will have some holes to fill in its network when it loses Maritz, its majority owner, and ITG, which has a sizable share in the GTM organization as well. Danny Hood, president of WorldTravel Partners, which was part of the GTM network prior to its merger with BTI (BTN, Oct. 26,1988) was not concerned about the future of the GTM organization.
"GTM is a very resilient operation," said Hood. "Rosenbluth was the first to jilt them, then US Travel jilted them for BTI, then WorldTravel Partners jilted them for BTI. They obviously survived all that." Hood said GTM will need to find another U.S. partner, but the agency consortium is strong in Europe and still will be a viable pan-European bid option for companies awarding business on a region- by-region basis.