President’s Letter
By Mark Murphy
Editor's Note: Travel Pulse will not publish on Friday, July 3, but we will be updating top stories. Travel Pulse will return on Monday, July 6.
There is a saying that all of you are familiar with: “Put your money where your mouth is.” Another way of communicating that same point is another saying: “Actions speak louder than words.” In today’s column, I’m going to combine words with something that will actually take place later this month. As many of you are well aware, travel to Mexico has suffered greatly from a series of negative events. These have been covered extensively in the consumer media in one light, and through our own media outlets in quite a different light.
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In a merger of two large New York area agencies, Protravel International Inc., based in New York, N.Y., has acquired Rich Worldwide Travel, based in Harrison, N.Y. in Westchester County in New York City’s suburbs. Priscilla Alexander, president of Protravel, said that with three of Rich Worldwide’s offices in main Protravel locations, it was a natural merger of similar customers and business philosophies. Both agencies also are members of the Virtuoso luxury marketing network. Protravel has about a 70-30 business-leisure travel mix while Rich Worldwide is about 60-40, according to executives at both agencies.
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According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. resident outbound market, totaling 63.6 million travelers, declined by 1 percent in 2008 compared to annual 2007 figures, representing the first decline since 2002. Travel to Mexico grew by 4 percent whereas travel overseas and to Canada declined by 1 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Spending by U.S. residents traveling abroad in 2008, however, set a record for the fifth successive year at $112.3 billion, up 7 percent from 2007.
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The World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA) has voiced its condemnation of the move by United Airlines to transfer credit card merchant fee costs to selected U.S.-based travel agents, and inevitably to consumers. United has informed the selected travel agents that, effective July 20,
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