TravelMole interview: Bill La Macchia Jr., COO, The Mark Travel Corporation

Travel agents will have something to celebrate as well this year when the Milwaukee-based Mark Travel Corporation notes its 30th anniversary, says its COO, Bill La Macchia Jr. He told TravelMole: “My grandmother and grandfather were travel agents. When my father started the company, he was still a travel agent. His idea all along was to begin a travel company where wholesale vacation packages were sold by travel agents.” Mr La Macchia said throughout the year there will be various special offers for travel agents as the company celebrates its anniversary. One current offer includes selected packages that have savings of up to 30%. Travel agents represent a high percentage of business generated at the company. With some Mark divisions such as Blue Sky Tours, agents account for 100% of the bookings, said Mr La Macchia. “Overall, about 75% of our business is generated by travel agents. So agents have been critical to our success,” he said. In addition to the standard 10% commissions, Mr La Macchia said, many travel agents get overrides of 15% or so. One of the company’s booking products designed with travel agents in mind, VAX VacationAccess, is rapidly catching on in popularity, Mr La Macchia said. “Even Sabre and Amadeus have licensed it. It not only allows travel agents to have more interactive bookings but allows them to do marketing functions. They can send e-mails to their customers or supply their own confirmation type notices with their logos or other marketing techniques,” he said. The system does not require agent ARC numbers. “So it’s very popular with home based agents who can just log on and start booking,” he said. Travel agents have been so important to company, Mr La Macchia said, that “after 9-11 our motto was sort of that our success was predicated on the success of travel agents.” The Mark Travel Corporation is managing company to 17 vacation programs, including Adventure Tours, FunJet Vacations, ATA Vacations, AeroMexico, Southwest Airlines Vacation and others.