Mark Travel’s Traterra Goes Head-to-Head With Agents

This article has been updated.

A slick new consumer-direct initiative from Mark Travel Corp. that touts the same kind of personalized vacation planning services and products offered by travel agents has all but escaped the trade’s attention since its launch last year.

Traterra is an online booking portal for consumers that appears to take supplier-direct competition to a new level. One travel agency executive characterized Traterra as “kind of a luxury travel agency.”

Traterra offers vacations “backed by the knowledge and expertise of our Travel Planners that are standing by to help you as little or as much as you need.” In addition to a booking engine for air and hotel, the service lets users construct custom itineraries.

Significantly, Traterra features travel products that extend beyond Mark Travel’s portfolio of suppliers, which include Funjet Vacations, Blue Sky Tours, Southwest Airlines Vacations and Brand G. Vacations, among others.

A chat icon, email icon and toll-free phone number are displayed prominently on the home page, which promotes Traterra’s “expert advice,” “personalized service” and “around-the-globe support” – at “no cost to you.”

Shocked
Brian Hurley of Fox World Travel Inc., a $250 million American Express agency in Oshkosh, Wisc., said he was “shocked” at what he saw when he logged onto Traterra for the first time last week – particularly the breadth of its content.

“It’s certainly a very big competitor from a technology standpoint and from a marketing-might standpoint,” said Hurley, vice president and general manager of Fox World’s vacation travel division.

But “Traterra is not looking to cannibalize the customers of travel agents,” a spokesperson told Travel Market Report. Its target audience is currently self-booking their vacations, according to Traterra’s research.

Still in beta
The Traterra site went live in the third quarter of 2012 without fanfare.

Milwaukee-based Mark Travel Corp. filed for a trademark for Traterra in June 2011 and registered the trademark in April 2012, according to several online trademark search services.

“We have intentionally had a quiet launch so far for Traterra,” Lynn Clark, vice president of marketing for Traterra, told Travel Market Report. “We are currently still in our beta phase and plan to do a full launch later in the year.”

In February, Traterra issued a press release announcing a partnership with chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern to assist as a “travel insider for the new travel provider.”

Partnership plans
Clark said the company is currently operating with a skeleton crew and only a handful of travel consultants are currently involved.

Traterra is looking to develop partnerships with travel agency consortia, according to Clark. “Our intent is to partner with a travel agency network and share this new business with travel agents,” a spokesperson explained.

“La Macchia Enterprises really has the interests of travel agents at heart,” said Clark.

How it works
Currently, Traterra features content from a half dozen bloggers, along with custom-designed itineraries that consumers can build from an itemized menu of excursions and accommodations.

Users have the option of booking directly through the site, as they would on any OTA, or chatting online with representatives to get destination information, pre-travel assistance and technical assistance.

If a user books a flight and hotel, they are offered excursions on a la carte basis toward the end of the booking process. All phases of the booking process can be completed without interacting with a travel consultant.

Agent reaction
Hurley of Fox World Travel was disappointed to see Mark Travel Corp., a longtime partner, go head to head with travel agents.

“It’s everything that a typical travel agency does,” said Hurley, the executive who characterized Traterra “as kind of a luxury travel agency.”

“It’s a direct competitor to the multitude of products that a typical travel agency sells. There’s luxury to London and Barcelona and Dublin. What’s next? Is it river cruising? Ocean liner cruising? I think that might be next.”

Firewall concerns
Of particular concern to Hurley was what he feared was the lack of firewall between Traterra and Funjet Vacations.

“It recognized my departure city, even though I’d never been on this site before. It recognized my IP address. I would imagine that it would recognize any one of my clients that had been on Funjet.com.”

According to Traterra’s spokesperson, “there is indeed a firewall between Traterra and Funjet Vacations. . . . We take protecting our customer’s personal information very seriously.”

Fox World Travel has worked closed with Funjet Vacations for decades, Hurley said. “I have a longstanding relationship with these people that I would like to go on much longer. They are quality people. They have a quality product. We get excellent support from Funjet Vacations.”

Just one more competitor
Other agents contacted by Travel Market Report were unaware of Traterra.

While Debby Stevens, owner of 3D Cruise and Travel, LLC, in Round Rock, Texas, had not yet seen the website, she commented that “another website is to me in essence another competitor.”

Stevens often books Mark Travel Corp.’s brands, including Funjet. “I like Funjet; I use them as one of my suppliers.”

“I do have others I try to generate business with, because they do not sell direct,” she added.