Forest Travel’s Virgin Galactic space flights draw Yapta’s interest.
SEATTLE and MIAMI – Yapta, a leading provider of airfare and hotel price tracking services, and Forest Travel, a leading independent travel agency in the southeastern U.S., announced that they have partnered to bring airfare and hotel price assurance to the hundreds of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that Forest Travel serves each year.
Forest Travel, with personnel in Atlanta, Costa Rica, Denver, Miami, and New York City, provides a comprehensive suite of travel services for SMBs and leisure travelers – from airline tickets, hotels and rental cars, to private jets, trains, cruises and worldwide luxury resorts. For clients that need help establishing a corporate travel program, the agency has bundled solutions for Travel Risk Management, Travel Policy Compliance, Expense Automation and Dedicated Account Management among others. The agency has partnered with the best of travel industry technology leaders, including Concur, Conferma, Magnatech and Yapta – assembling The Ultimate Travel Program.
“Yapta brings our small and midsized clients the travel industry’s only comprehensive price assurance solution, enabling them to save on both airfare and hotels,” said Carmen Stinson, Director of Global Corporate Travel at Forest Travel. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to improve the experience of business travelers, finance leaders, HR and travel managers. Yapta is the perfect fit for our program as it provides our clients with confidence in their travel spend.”
“There’s a real opportunity for mid-market companies to reduce their airfare and hotel costs by taking advantage of the intelligent price tracking services we offer with Forest Travel,” said Michael Smith, Chief Revenue Officer for Yapta. “This is a savings initiative that doesn’t soak up internal resources to execute, and the performance-based model offers absolutely no risk. It’s perfect for mid-sized businesses that want to assert control over their travel spend.”
In addition to helping Forest Travel clients cut costs, Yapta also sees value in Forest Travel’s unique relationship with Virgin Galactic, a pioneer in commercial space travel. According to a report from financial services company UBS, spacecraft could be competing with airlines on long-haul travel routes as soon as 2030. The report notes that point-to-point travel by rocket could compete with airline travel on flights that currently take ten hours or more. A trip from New York to Shanghai that now takes 15 hours could be completed in just 39 minutes by rocket transport, according to UBS.
“The market for providing price assurance products for commercial space travel is probably not going to happen anytime soon, but it is an interesting concept given the potential of space flight to dramatically reshape the travel industry,” Smith said. “By partnering with Forest Travel we will be able to learn from a pioneer in the commercial space travel market. This is going to be an exciting market segment to watch.”
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
