“A Trojan Horse” Is How One Agency Exec Described the New ARC List
by Geri BainUpdated: June 8, 2010
Based on conversations with a number of travel sellers and agency group leaders, the agency community said ARC’s Agency List Pro could have some advantages but raises some serious questions about ARC’s right to release the data.In an online poll, 89% of Travel Market Report readers said that ARC does not have the right to share their data. Plus, agents said the ARC data is misleading.
ARC introduced its new Agency List Pro, saying it promotes the effectiveness of the travel agency distribution channel to destinations and suppliers by enabling them to target their marketing efforts to specific travel agencies based on their ARC data. Data is aggregated by agency and does not drill down to specific sellers or dates.
“This is a Trojan horse,” said Jim Mazza, CEO, American Marketing Group (parent company of TMR). “Once you open the door to allowing ARC to resell or even share your data with a supplier without your permission, it’s hard to know what’s next.”
 |
“This data is an agency’s negotiating strength with its suppliers. Having the data sold by ARC in advance of negotiations weakens an agency’s hand. And more important, since it’s incomplete data, the supplier will come in with an incorrect preconceived notion of your business that could cost an agency real money. Whether it’s ultimately legal or not, does ARC have an ethical right to sell this data without an agency’s permission?”
Many interviewees said that any data promoting the size of the travel agency distribution channel is helpful. However, they also voiced privacy concerns about ARC’s selling data about an agency’s business. In fact, the biggest question is whether ARC has the right to sell data that releases sales information about individual agencies. (See related story: ASTA Questions ARC’s Right to Sell Agency Data). In an online poll, 89% of Travel Market Report readers said that ARC does not have the right to share their data.
Plus, almost all agents interviewed questioned the value of the data, pointing out that the data grossly understates the number of bookings through travel agents, and in many cases gives a distorted read on the source of the bookings.
ARC Bookings Highlighted
 |
Don Gould, IT Group president, said he could see the potential benefit in ARC’s new Agency List Pro. “Someone offering support and looking to the travel agency channel for business could only be good, he said, adding: “I wouldn’t mind someone finding out that I’m doing a good job and saying ‘I want to work with you.’”
 |
“Anything that accentuates travel booked through travel agencies is probably good from a distribution point of view, agreed Scott Ahlsmith, CTC, chairman of The Travel Institute as well as executive vice president at Virtuoso, and president of 23TouchPoints, Inc., a spinout of Virtuoso’s technology and business intelligence unit.
The More Data the Better
 |
Chris Russo, ASTA president, also agreed. “I like the fact that ARC is looking at alternatives for agents and suppliers to get better data to pinpoint customers. On the face of it, this is data that most of us have within our back office systems. But surprising as it seems, some ARC-appointed agents still don’t have the back office systems to pull this data. It’s amazing to me.”
Gould also pointed out that while most agencies probably already have access to the data, it probably would be enlightening to some agents to know how much business they are doing to some areas. “The data is available, but I’m not sure that they all look at it and understand what it could mean,” Gould said.
Whose Data Is It?
“As long as I’m controlling the business, if they want me to shift market share and I’ll be rewarded, I want to know. If data was to put someone in a position to reach out to customer, that would be a concern,” Gould stressed, noting that the ARC program isn’t structured this way.
However, many interviewees said they feared that the data could put an agency at a disadvantage in negotiations. “You don’t want someone else to put your data in the hands of the person across the table,” said one agency executive.
 |
Larry Austin, chairman and CEO, Melville, NY-based Austin Travel, said that his initial reaction was “No! I don’t want marketing people knowing who I’m doing business with. The less they know about our business, the happier I am. Plus, this information could be useful for my competitors, who might want to go behind my back and take away some of this business.”
However Austin said that on further thought, the information could be useful to him. “Knowing the key markets and the players in that market could be very beneficial to our own marketing. We certainly don’t want to work ‘in a shell’ and the more we know, the stronger our business is. For example, we do about $100 million a year in sales and I don’t know exactly where our customers are going. I have the ability to pull the totals and this information could help, but we have other things going on and often don’t stop to look.”
The Limits of ARC Data
Almost everyone interviewed voiced concern that the ARC data could be misleading. ARC figures do not track an agency’s air bookings made through wholesalers, consolidators and charter operators or bookings made online on behalf of clients. And bookings made through host agencies all appear as coming from one source.
 |
John Werner president & COO at MAST Travel Network, said that the program doesn’t affect MAST members much. “While a number of members have a high ARC volume… I’m not sure how valuable the data that ARC would be selling to some of these DMCs or destinations would be… Air sales are not exclusive to ARC anymore; they (agents) may be buying through tour operators and cruise lines as well as airline Web sites and OTAs. Wherever they can do the best for their customer is where they’re going.”
Marketing group air programs are another way the data can be misleading, noted several interviewees.
 |
“For travel organizations like ours that have a dedicated air program, it won’t show.” said Brian R. Chapin, senior director, airline relations for Ensemble Travel Group. For example, Chapin noted, ticketing through Ensemble’s air program would show in Ensemble’s ARC number. “It’s not going to paint an accurate picture of what is actually being ticketed or sold.”
“If someone is going to analyze my sales, analyze my total sales,” Chapin stressed. “A lot of good producing agencies won’t show up on the radar.”
Another issue, Chapin pointed out is the fact that tourism offices already have relationships with consortia that give them access to membership.
“They can participate in conferences and supplier-related events. And when it comes to fam trips or education, most owners and managers want their agents to participate in trips sponsored by a preferred supplier. If agents aren’t selling those (preferred) suppliers, then it isn’t benefitting the agency or the organization,” Chapin said.
The way that host agency business is tracked also distorts the data, noted many interviewees for this story.
 |
Betsy Geiser, vice president, Uniglobe Travel International, pointed out that Uniglobe’s host agency model means the ARC number is same for all its agents.
“So this data won’t reveal which agent is booking because ARC doesn’t break it out,” she pointed out.
Nor did Geiser see a benefit to the agencies. “The suppliers we work with…know who we are and where we send people.”
Several agents pointed out that since all bookings from a host agency are tracked through the same ARC number, bookings from agents across town and across the country will appear to come from one source.
From a tourist board or DMC perspective, there is a lot missing beyond the bookings that don’t get made through ARC.
“For instance, the ARC data showing people landing in Cancun doesn’t tell them whether they are staying in Cancun, the Riviera Maya or other destinations… Nor does ARC data segregate corporate from leisure bookings, which might be important when looking at a destination such as San Juan,” Ahlsmith said.
“This doesn’t make the data bad, but there are other sources of business intelligence data that can be overlaid on the ARC data to increase the overall business intellence value,” Ahlsmith stressed.
See related article on the basics of ARC List Pro and ASTA’s privacy concerns.
