Interline Travel Agencies

ID90T Appoints Mike Stacy President and CEO

Posted on: Friday, 10 June 2011, 00:00 CDT

Mike Stacy, accomplished travel industry and e-commerce executive, has been appointed to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of ID90 Technologies (ID90T) and ID90.COM, both part of the ID90 Group.

Beverly Hills, CA (PRWEB) June 09, 2011

Mike Stacy has been appointed to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of ID90 Technologies (ID90T) and ID90.COM, both part of the ID90 Group.

With more than 15 years of experience, Mike is an accomplished travel industry and e-commerce executive who has held a number of key positions, including executive leadership roles at Travelocity, Clear Channel Entertainment, Cheap Tickets and Groople.

“Mike’s appointment will allow ID90T to further solidify its position as the market leader in interline travel and, more importantly, ID90T’s commitment to offer every airline employee the best possible travel planning and purchasing experience” said Tristan Schukraft, founder of the ID90 Group.

As Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Travelocity, Mike led the company’s marketing, public relations and customer experience efforts. He also oversaw Travelocity’s award-winning advertising campaigns, launched the brand in Europe and developed joint ventures in Asia. While at Travelocity, Mike was twice named a Rising Star by Travel Agent magazine.

Later, as President of Cheap Tickets, he led the company to profitability for the first time. He and his team improved the site conversion rate and increased transactions, making Cheap Tickets the fastest-growing online travel site in 2004.

Most recently, Mike served as CEO at Groople, an online group travel service. While there, he raised $13 million in venture capital funding, oversaw the complete redevelopment of the company’s technology to fully automate group hotel bookings and later managed Groople’s acquisition.

“We are delighted to have a talented individual like Mike join as chief executive officer as we further position ID90T for long-term growth,” said David Bohnett, chairman of ID90T’s Board.

Mike Holds an MBA, in Marketing & Finance, from Pepperdine University, with a BA in Sociology from St. John’s University. Mike currently resides in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and three children and is a Board Member of the Uganda Rural Development and Training Program, a non-profit organization that provides education and training for rural development in the Kibaale District of Uganda.

Norwegian Cruise Line Puts Partners First : Interline Travel News

Norwegian Cruise Line (”Norwegian”) today announced “Partners First,” the company’s corporate philosophy of putting its travel partners first at Cruise3Sixty, the official travel agency conference of the cruise line industry. Andy Stuart, Norwegian’s executive vice president of global sales and passenger services, detailed how the company is putting partners first in three key areas: investment in long-term travel partner success; a complete focus on being easy to do business with; and a commitment to travel partners on direct business.

“Travel partners are an integral part of our business and putting them first is part of our DNA,” said Stuart. “We felt that we needed to do a better job of communicating this philosophy to our travel partners so that they could clearly understand our commitment to them.”

In terms of investment in agents’ long-term success, the company committed $16 million toward new customizable marketing tools, increased marketing support, improved communication and keeping NCL University as the most robust travel partner education site and online community in the industry. The company is also investing in its outside sales team and expanding its inside sales team by 45% to dramatically grow the line’s reach to ensure every single travel partner has a contact at Norwegian to help grow their business.

Norwegian is also focused on streamlining the booking process and is investing $7 million in new technology booking improvements for travel partners, along with guaranteeing all rate quotes, offering partners a competitive advantage with promotional groups and creating an email address – askVivian@ncl.com – where partner operational questions go direct to the company’s vice president of passenger services, Vivian Ewart.

Stuart also outlined Norwegian’s stance on direct business. “There’s been a lot of noise in the marketplace recently about direct sales. We want to assure our partners that we do not use customer data from travel agent bookings for direct business. We will not contact our partners’ clients to book directly with us,” said Stuart. “Also, our direct business has no price advantage.”

To ensure travel partners are aware of Norwegian’s commitment, the company has engaged a dedicated trade agency, R&R Partners, to handle all aspects of the company’s trade marketing and programs. R&R has handled aspects of Norwegian’s trade program since 2008.

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