Avoya Travel Unveils Priceline Pact At Annual Meeting

Avoya Travel independent affiliates gathered at Club Med Sandpiper this week for their annual conference.

Avoya Travel, which has long described itself as a hybrid host travel agency that combines online marketing with a human sales team of experienced travel agents, has now linked itself to one of the two largest online travel agencies in the world. 

The agency, which sells travel through roughly 750 independent affiliate agencies, has partnered with Priceline.com to provide its independent travel agency affiliates with the capability to book hotels, air, and car rentals from the Priceline inventory. 

That was one of the major announcements at Avoya’s annual conference, held this week at Club Med Sandpiper in Port St. Lucie, FL, where 450 independent affiliates heard about the latest Avoya technology, marketing, and training initiatives. It also marked the first time that travel trade journalists were invited to attend the conference for a media day.  

Avoya executives said the new relationship with Priceline.com will provide its independent affiliate agencies with the option to make commissionable individual hotel bookings, as well as non-commissionable airline and car rentals bookings. Avoya agencies also will be able to book travel through Priceline.com for their clients using Agent Power, Avoya’s internal operating system, which is the backbone of the entire network.  

The deal essentially makes Avoya part of the Priceline Partner Network, the online giant’s travel affiliate program. But Avoya executives say their relationship with Priceline.com will be at another level from its other network partners. Avoya also says there is more to come from the partnership in the future. 

Jeff Anderson’s return
A key highlight of the conference was the return of Jeff Anderson, Avoya’s executive vice president. Anderson survived a serious ATV accident in Montana last summer and has been rehabilitating ever since. There was even some question whether he would be attending the conference. 

Not only did he attend, but he served as the primary speaker through many of the sessions. Anderson’s father, Brad Anderson, and his uncle, Van Anderson, are Avoya co-presidents and co-founders.  

For his part, Jeff Anderson provided an inspirational account of his accident and how he survived it, to the frequent applause of Avoya delegates, as well as a “state of the union” of Avoya itself.  

He said cruise bookings were up 26% to the Caribbean, 29% to Alaska, 8% to Europe and 0% to Asia, with repeat customers up 20%. 

On the other hand, the first quarter of 2016 is starting slowly in terms of growth over 2015. Bookings to the Caribbean are up only 5%, though Alaska is up 22%, Asia is up 28% and Europe is down 6%, reflecting the booking woes being encountered in that region.