Looking Back with Travel Market Report: An Interview with the Founder

After five years online, Travel Market Report founder and American Marketing Group (AMG) Chairman Rick Mazza says the online publication is only getting started in its mission to act as the “Voice of the Travel Professional.”

“People confront travel sellers from every direction, and we try to clarify and report findings,” said Mazza, a 45-year veteran of the travel industry.

When discussing the impetus behind founding the publication, Mazza says a shift in the travel industry caused travel sellers to become marginalized by some suppliers.

He founded Travel Market Report because sellers of travel need a resource and institution to represent their voice in the travel industry.

Travel agent beginnings
Mazza began his career as a travel seller and owned a travel agency franchise in Brooklyn, N.Y. before starting TRAVELSAVERS, one of the first travel agency marketing groups.

Rick Mazza

Back in 2009, Mazza felt there was a void in the marketplace. While agency consortia and marketing groups may have been representing their members, there was a lack of one reliable voice for the travel seller community.

Specifically: a credible voice with reporters and editors trusted to report and investigate the policies and practices affecting agents and their clients.

The publication is a vehicle for travel agents to contact on- or off-the-record with issues or concerns, with the goal of giving both pro-agent and anti-agent policies the same quality of coverage.

“Travel Market Report has become the advocate of the retailer and the advocate of travel agent associations which are working diligently to support and represent travel sellers,” said Mazza.

A voice
Mazza decided to invest in a dedicated publication to tell the agent’s side of the story. He wanted to give back to the professionals who helped build the travel industry and provide a forum for the candid discussion of industry issues.

“Travel retailers had a problem getting what they wanted told, out in the open and listened to; so we decided to be a rallying point for this and their central voice.”

Issues ranging from commission cuts to suppliers’ anti-agent policies and procedures and brazen fraud to news media misrepresentation have all been tackled in Travel Market Report’s investigative reportage.

In an effort to ensure fairness, Travel Market Report did not accept advertising for its first three years. Today, advertising from agency groups and host agencies is still not accepted in order to create a fair forum focused on travel retailer issues at large.

Fair and accurate reporting
Complete neutrality was also essential to the trustworthiness of the publication. One agency group or supplier could not be favored over another, and all stories were to be reported with integrity.

Travel Market Report’s advisory board is comprised of agents and executives from almost every agency group, along with unaffiliated agents. The board members’ insights and guidance are indispensable to TMR’s editorial coverage.

“We kept true to our principles, and it was important we put a board together made up of different agency groups with the idea that this is a very neutral news media publication,” said Mazza.

“When we need to do investigative reporting, we’re not afraid to ask the hard questions.”