Travel Leaders to Launch Worldwide Hotel Program

Travel Leaders Group reports the launch of its own proprietary Travel Leaders Group Worldwide Hotel Program. The program will realign its hotel programs and strategies in better serve its agents and hotel partners. The group reports more than $2 Billion in hotel bookings currently made by its wholly-owned, franchised and member agencies.

Beginning in 2013, Travel Leaders Group will provide all agencies under its umbrella with its own fully-developed hotel program so they no longer have to work through a variety of third party aggregators. In tandem with the launch, Travel Leaders Group CEO Barry Liben announced that Mai Meyaart has been named Senior Vice President to run the new operation that will serve all of the enterprise’s travel agency brands and divisions.

According to Liben, the Travel Leaders Group Worldwide Hotel Program will provide a one-stop shop for hotels to work with its leisure, corporate and luxury agencies. They will be provided direct access to hotel partners, and vice versa, without having to work through intermediary programs.

Agencies under the Travel Leaders Group umbrella will further benefit as the program includes preferred hotel partners across all chain scales in key cities with exclusive offers and value-added amenities. Additionally, a dedicated luxury hotel program will be provided for the exclusive use of Travel Leaders Group’s luxury-focused agencies.

“We are extremely pleased that Mai Meyaart is joining our organization because we believe in having the absolute best talent on board to oversee this vast initiative. With all our hotel partnerships and strategies coming directly under her leadership, we are confident that our Travel Leaders Group Worldwide Hotel Program will be fully functional by January 1, 2013,” Liben noted.

Meyaart is a 20-year veteran of the travel industry having spent the majority of her career selling, marketing and distributing hotels both in a B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) environment. She has actively participated on several hotel advisory boards and developed preferred hotel programs and strategic partnerships for Rosenbluth International and American Express. Most recently she served at  CCRA Travel Solutions.

Travel Leaders Group is one of North America’s largest travel companies – encompassing approximately 30 percent of all traditional travel agents – and generates gross travel sales of nearly $17 billion.