Travelocity

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Travelocity is an online travel agency operated by Travelocity.com LP. Travelocity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007. Travelocity is based in Southlake, Texas, with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, San Antonio and abroad.

According to Sabre Holdings, Travelocity is the sixth-largest travel agency in the United States, and the second-largest online travel agency. In addition to its primary US consumer site, Travelocity operates a full-service business agency, Travelocity Business, and comparable websites in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. Sister sites include lastminute.com in Europe and Zuji in Asia. Other brands include World Choice Travel, a travel affiliate marketing program; and Travelocity on Location, an activities and ticket broker based in Las Vegas.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

American Airlines began offering customer access to its electronic reservation system, SABRE, on the CompuServe Information Service in the 1980s, under the "Eaasy SABRE"^[1]^[2] brand name. This service was extended to America Online in the 1990s.

Travelocity was created in 1996, as a subsidiary of Sabre Holdings, itself a subsidiary of American Airlines and was run by long-time Sabre I.T. executive Terrell B. "Terry" Jones. As one of the pioneers of web-based disintermediation, Travelocity.com was the first website that allowed consumers themselves not only to access Sabre's fare and schedule information, but also to reserve, book, and purchase tickets without the help of a travel agent or broker. In addition to airfares, the site also permits consumers to book hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and packaged vacations.

Travelocity gained momentum after the AOL keyword Travel became associated with the brand in 1999. In 2000, Sabre negotiated a merger of Travelocity with another early web travel company, Preview Travel. The resulting company was independently quoted on the NASDAQ exchange, with Sabre continuing to own around 30% of the combined company's stock, but around 70% of the voting rights. In 2002, with Travelocity's fortunes suffering from competition including Expedia and Orbitz, Sabre consummated a tender offer for the remainder of the outstanding shares in Travelocity and remerged the business into Sabre as a subsidiary. Jones left the company shortly afterward.

Also in March 2002, Travelocity acquired last minute travel specialist Site59.com. Site59’s CEO and founder, Michelle Peluso joined Travelocity with the acquisition as senior vice president, product strategy and distribution. Peluso became Travelocity’s COO in April 2003 and was then named president and chief executive officer of Travelocity in December 2003.

In 2005, Travelocity acquired lastminute.com to take in excess of 30 more brands under its banner in the UK.

Under current CEO Michelle Peluso’s leadership, Travelocity has developed and launched a merchant hotel business, dynamic packaging functionality, and a private-label (ASP) distribution network, the Travelocity Partner Network. As of early 2005, many members of Peluso’s former management team at Site59 now hold senior management positions at Travelocity; namely, Jeffrey Glueck (Chief Marketing Officer), Damon Tassone (Deputy CEO, lastminute.com), Tracey Weber (COO, North America), Richard Harris (Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development), Josh Feuerstein (Group Manager Director at lastminute.com and Senior Vice President and Hotel Segment Manger for Sabre Holdings), Josh Hartmann (Vice President, Software Development) and Jonathan Perkel (Vice President & Deputy General Counsel).

[edit] Trivia

Travelocity was a sponsor of the TV series The Amazing Race from the 7th season to the 9th season and 11th season.

Their current mascot is known as the "The Roaming Gnome".

Travelocity's current slogan is "You'll never roam alone."

Travelocity also offers Gay and Lesbian friendly hotels and resorts that are bookable online. [1]

[edit] See also

Where is my Gnome?, a viral marketing campaign used by Travelocity.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e Webby Awards

Award	Nominee, 1997 award in the category Travel Nominee, 1998 award in the category Travel Winner, 2001 award in the category Commerce

Awards Ceremonies	1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001