For Immediate Release

As readers of my blog, I wanted you to be the first to be aware of a marketing partnership that my company Travelwatch and Baxter Travel Media (BTM) have put together.

What this means to you is that through BTM, I’ll be able to gather even more information and statistics critical to the marketing of a travel business and be able to share my learnings and ideas with you through this blog and through an upcoming monthly column that I will be writing in Travel Press.

Please read our media release below…

Baxter Travel Media, Travelwatch launch marketing partnership
2007-04-04
Baxter Travel Media (BTM) and Travelwatch have entered into a marketing partnership that will see Travelwatch deploy Customer Marketing Manager (CMM) — a simplified, low-cost Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for the North American travel trade.

“Travelwatch has a great suite of products and we’re pleased to be working with them to provide our customers with a set of affordable online marketing tools,” commented David McClung, president of Baxter Travel Media. “It’s a good fit for us. Travelwatch will enhance the tools already available in Travel Agent Central at www.travelpress.com.”

He added, “Our strength has always been our agent and supplier partners. What Travelwatch adds to the mix is an effective and seamless way for agents to enhance their relationship with their customer and conversely, provides a vehicle for suppliers to work more closely with agents.”

Travelwatch president Frank Orlando’s explanation of the Customer Marketing Manager solution is more succinct: “It’s B through B to C.”

Under the agreement, BTM and Travelwatch will be working co-operatively to market the Customer Marketing Manager solution to the travel trade across Canada. “Travelwatch delivers a simple three-step system that’s designed to initiate, build and strengthen the retail travel agent’s relationship with their customer by providing a range of ‘self-service to fully-managed’ e-marketing tools,” said Travelwatch’s Orlando.

Agents and suppliers will be able to learn more about and gain access to CMM and other Travelwatch services through BTM’s print and digital format publications (Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier); via reciprocal links between www.travelpress.com and www.travelwatch.ca; on the double-daily news service, Press Today; and through BTM’s push e-mail product, Travel Alert.

“I think we are beginning to see a balance being struck between online and traditional travel services. We enable the traditional agent and supplier model to use the Internet as a tool to enhance its services to a level presently unachievable by today’s online-only business model. In my opinion, a personal relationship between client and a professional counsellor will beat client and computer any day,” continued Orlando.

To launch their new partnership, the industry is being offered a 30-day free trial of the Travelwatch product. Visit either www.travelwatch.ca or www.travelpress.com for more information.