Navigant International late yesterday confirmed it bought Little Rock's World Wide Travel Service, the 10th-largest corporate travel agency, to bolster its position as the second largest. In 2002 figures published in
BTN's Business Travel Survey
(BTN, May 26), WWTS' ARC sales of $282 million plus Navigant's $3.4 billion would eclipse WorldTravel BTI's $3.6 billion. Navigant was bigger than WT BTI on 2002 tickets issued, with 6.6 million versus 5.8 million. WWTS issued 815,000 tickets last year.
"We have acquired that company," said Paul Shamon, vice president of marketing and communications for Englewood, Colo.-based Navigant. "Navigant once again is in the acquiring mode." Shamon was unable to provide further details.
A call placed to WWTS was not immediately returned, but an Oct. 7 message on its Web site stated: "We have partnered with Navigant International." The message told clients that their WWTS contacts will not change, and its management remains intact. "As a result of this partnership, we will now have access to significantly increased resources and the negotiating strength of a multibillion-dollar business," according to the site.
WWTS said it will join Navigant in rolling out its Navisphere technology infrastructure next year (
BTNonline, Oct. 31). Like Navigant, WWTS processes about three-fourths of its reservations using Sabre. A Radius member, WWTS said it had 350 full-time employees at the end of 2002. It reported the highest online adoption of any corporate agency, with a rate of 51 percent. WWTS supports third-party products as well as its own QualityAgent.