CI Travel: 'Fare' Share
Service Industries
By Brooke Knudson   
Friday, 21 December 2007
CI Travel, Norfolk, VA
CI Travel offers travel management services for leisure, corporate and government clients.
If power can be translated into action, the nation's travel firms are as active as ever. According to Travel Weekly's Power List, more agencies are topping $100 million in annual sales. Norfolk, Va.-based CI Travel reached $170 million in sales in 2006 and ranked among the Top 50 on the Power List for the seventh consecutive year, President Kevin McElroy says.

Perhaps the reason for CI Travel's "fare share" of success is its overall market reach and handle on diverse markets. In addition to its leisure travel division, the company has over 25 years expertise assisting corporations and government agencies with their travel needs. McElroy says the company's revenues are split among three markets: government, accounting for about 60 percent of revenues; corporate bringing in 25 percent; and leisure at 15 percent. The business employs 212 people at 32 branch offices located in 11 states.  

Setting the Pace
The business was launched as Cruise International in 1972 for the main purpose of marketing, selling and booking cruises from East Coast outports. It sold outport sailings to other travel agencies and to groups such as the Virginia Association of Realtors, the Virginia State Bar and several other clients. McElroy, who has been with the company since 1984, says the business contacts the company made selling cruise packages gave it a foot in the door when it began developing its land-based groups and corporate travel division. The company eventually shifted into a full-service travel firm, naming its new division CI Travel.

"In the mid-70s companies dealt directly with the airlines for their travel," McElroy explains. "We started something totally different. We were able to leverage the reputation we had developed through the cruises into a new related business - that of corporate travel." Since then, CI Travel's client base has expanded to include notable companies including PH Mining, Trader Publishing, Joy Global and Dollar Tree Stores Inc.

In the mid-1980s, the government was opening up travel management to civilian travel management companies. Prior to that, all contracts were negotiated directly with the airlines and other travel suppliers. CI Travel earned its first jobs with the government through a small-businesses set-aside contract, and eventually earned more government business as the company continued to grow. Today, its primary accounts include all NASA centers throughout the country, the U.S. Air Force, NATO and 11 regional and district offices for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Technology Aids Travel
CI Travel offers a package of services including reservations for all travel suppliers, automated ticket-delivery, price negotiation, travel insurance packages, 24-hour emergency travel service, customized management reporting and customized Web portals for travel purposes. In many cases, McElroy says, technology and the Internet have enabled the company, rather than hindered it.

Technology investment in product delivery services has allowed the company to communicate electronically with large clients and run the business more efficiently, McElroy says. "Physical presence is no longer a requirement with advances in technology," he claims. "With corporate accounts, for example, in the past we would physically deliver the itinerary and the tickets - now we send those by e-mail. On itineraries we can now include links to airline sites, weather data, boarding pass access, as well as current information such as schedules of special events going on at the traveler's destination.

"[Clients] want a combination of full service and online processing," he continues. "Since 2001 there has been a movement both at CI Travel and throughout the travel industry to offer online products. Unlike many online products offered today, ours is one that is managed through a unique quality control process."

Expanding its Reach
Leveraging special packages and discount rates is something many travelers expect when using an agent. Realizing this, in May 2006, CI Travel joined the American Express Travel Network, not only to provide a broad range of packages and service locations, but to increase business.

"We decided to begin moving our corporate business beyond the reaches of Southeast Virginia, but we didn't have name recognition throughout the country, so we felt that American Express would give us that," McElroy says.

Affiliations with American Express and The Travel Council - a group of large, successful travel companies across the U.S. - provide sounding boards for the agency to voice concerns, share successes and collaborate and brainstorm on the best business strategies to grow the business. For example, CI Travel participates in American Express' destination specialists training programs and financial data is shared with members of The Travel Council.

Winning the Client
Following a strategic sourcing initiative, Milwaukee-based Joy Global, a mining machinery manufacturer, selected CI Travel in 2003 to manage its corporate travel program. "We evaluated and negotiated with several agencies, and one of the primary things that we were looking for was an online booking tool where we would make [travel] arrangements," says Linda Biondi, a corporate manager with Joy Global who oversees the company's travel program.  

Joy Global uses the company primarily for its airline travel and car rental needs. "We chose them for the best overall cost," Biondi notes. Prior to entering the contract, Joy Global, which operates 35 domestic locations, used an in-house agent to handle all of its travel needs. "We could reduce costs by eliminating the onsite [agent], we felt we needed better service and we did not have an online booking tool available."

CI Travel handles the domestic and international travel needs for Joy Global's U.S. and Canadian employees. "They provide global support for our travel needs, they assist in negotiations with airlines and car rentals and some national agreements with hotels."

The effects of globalization have also impacted Joy Global's travel needs. "Over the past couple of years, because of our increased business in China, we have increased the number of travelers," Biondi notes. In September alone, Joy Global had 490 total travel transactions, 112 of which were online bookings. Because international travel often requires complicated multi-part bookings, the company encourages its employees to use CI Travel for all international travel arrangements.

"The response time is also key for executing our travel arrangements," Biondi says. "If travel plans change, we need to have someone who wasn't going to put us on hold."

Catering to the Consumer
Keeping clients such as Joy Global satisfied with service takes a conscious effort from CI Travel's Consultants, who seek out the best products for its customers on any given trip, no matter the type of traveler, McElroy maintains. "We are in the travel business, but our product is consulting services," he adds. "We're going to be successful only if our people are successful. What makes us successful and what makes our company great is the quality of our people."

Acquisitions and mergers have created larger corporate clients with more challenging needs. This expanded business format has required CI Travel to work smarter and not just harder to provide an even higher level of service, it says. "The trend had been that you do business with the person down the street," McElroy says. "When that goes away, and the Fortune 100 companies consolidate their business with a single provider, high quality service is a must if you wish to retain or secure their business.

"With leisure travel, for example, our consultants must know a lot about products and destinations," McElroy claims. "What we are seeing now and what we'll see more of in the future is a focus on destination expertise. Today, the customer may come in and already have done two weeks of research on the product or destination - as their travel consultant you have to know as much if not more than the customer.

"Our people are not just here to fulfill a transaction," he says. "We have people who can figure out what is best for the customer and who are interested in working with people."


 
 
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