Travel Leaders Group (parent company of Cruise Specialists) once again earns top industry rankings and climbs to the number nine spot on Travel Weekly’s 2011 Power List of the industry’s top travel sellers.
Plymouth, MN (August 2, 2011) — For the third year in a row, Travel Leaders Group has been ranked as the number 1 travel management company by Business Travel News (BTN) and among the top ten travel companies in North America on Travel Weekly’s Power List. Also, for the 15th year in a row, Entrepreneur has ranked a Travel Leaders Group brand first among all full-service travel agency franchisors, this year giving top honors to the company’s flagship brand: Travel Leaders.
Overall, Travel Leaders Group reported annual sales of $1.79 billion for 2010 through its four wholly-owned divisions: Travel Leaders Corporate, Travel Leaders Leisure Group, Tzell Travel Group and Nexion. When sales from Travel Leaders Group’s three franchise (Travel Leaders, Results! Travel and Cruise Holidays) and travel agency consortium (Vacation.com) units are included, the sales volume for the entire Travel Leaders Group enterprise increases dramatically to over $16.62 billion for 2010.
“Our momentum in building Travel Leaders Group continues to be recognized through these key industry rankings, yet they only tell part of the story,” explained Barry Liben, Travel Leaders Group CEO. “For example, had Travel Weekly allowed us to incorporate the sales volume from our thousands of successful franchisees and consortium members, our $16 billion sales volume would have catapulted us up to number 4 – just behind Expedia, American Express and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.”
On June 27, Travel Weekly issued its authoritative 2011 Power List rankings of North America’s leading travel companies. The 2011 Power List rankings are strictly based on participating companies’ wholly-owned annual sales volume reported for 2010 and specifically exclude franchised and affiliated operations. As “the national newspaper for the travel industry,” Travel Weekly bills itself as “the most influential B2B news resource for the travel industry.”
Also on June 27, Business Travel News issued its 2011 Business Travel Survey, which specifically measured reported volume of participating travel management companies’ wholly-owned airline transactions for 2010 as verified by the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC). Business Travel News is considered “the voice of authority for corporate travel buyers throughout North America for over 25 years.”ARC is the premier financial transaction processing and settlement corporation that facilitates the distribution of travel products and related information.
“On the corporate travel side of our ledger, we are thrilled that for the third year in a row, Business Travel News has ranked us #1 among travel management companies reporting verified ARC transactions for the previous year,” Liben noted. “To gain an appreciation for just how impressive our ARC numbers were if our Tzell Travel Group division was included alone on the BTN list, it still would have ranked first. Travel Leaders Corporate adds to our overall volume and helps keep a sizeable distance between Travel Leaders Group and the rest.”
Additionally, in January, Travel Leaders Group’s eponymous franchise brand was also named as the #1 full-service travel agency franchisor in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500® – the 15th year in a row that a Travel Leaders Franchise Group brand has held the pole position on the Franchise 500.
“The travel agency business is who we are, and we’re proud of the exceptional levels of service that means for the traveling public,” added Liben. “With our heart and soul firmly rooted in the travel agency industry, Travel Leaders Group provides North America’s best agents and agencies a home they can take pride in.”
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