LOGIMONDE & ACTA ANNOUNCE NATIONAL MARKETING AGREEMENT

Terrilyn Kunopaski

Jean-Luc Beauchemin, regional director, ACTA, Quebec; Monique Audet, council member, ACTA, Quebec; Uguette Chiasson, president, Logimonde inc.; David McCaig, president and COO, ACTA ; Robert Turcotte, president, ACTA Quebec Regional Council; and Marie Klaude Gagnon, associate editor, Logimonde inc.

Yesterday, Tuesday Mar. 25, 2011, marked the beginning of an official partnership between the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) and Logimonde inc.

This national marketing agreement between the two national names has been established with the objective of developing and strengthening Canada’s French and English travel agency markets, according to David McCaig, president and COO of ACTA and Uguette Chiasson, president of Logimonde.

With ACTA’s presence across the country as well as Logimonde offices based in Montreal, Toronto and soon also in Vancouver, ACTA and Logimonde are hoping to work together on both national and more localized levels.

“ACTA members will benefit from better exposure and better communication,” McCaig said. “Logimonde will help with that and at the same time, companies will be happy to advertise their services with Logimonde, so (this is) a very strong move.”

As part of the agreement, Logimonde’s e-magazines - TRAVELHotNews.com, ExpressVoyage.ca and HelloWestTravel.com - will be title media sponsors of ACTA’s golf tournaments across the country, based on their respective markets. In addition, Logimonde will supply advertising for the golf tournaments in all three publications and will also help in organizing the events.

David McCaig, ppresident & COO, ACTA, and Uguette Chiasson, president of Logimonde inc.

Furthermore, Logimonde’s event calendars as published on each of the three websites will now be the official calendars of ACTA.

“Travel agents will have access to knowing all of the industry events going on across Canada,” Chiasson noted. “And, our calendars will be linked on the ACTA website as the official calendar in Canada.”

The idea of having a calendar inclusive of all industry events across the country is important to assist in the way travel agents do business, McCaig noted, saying it will help agents to organize their time and maximize productivity.

Communication and the ability of Logimonde to reach such a wide range of industry professionals is another major motivating factor behind the new partnership.

“ACTA represents the agency but we communicate with the agents as well,” McCaig said.

With this agreement, he is looking forward to reaching out not only to members but also to those that could be. “We tell our members what we are doing but we don’t tell agencies that are not our members. With Logimonde, now we will be able to tell more people about our good news stories.”

David McCaig, president & COO, ACTA; Uguette Chiasson, president, Logimonde inc.; & Robert Turcotte, president, ACTA Québec Regional Council

“We have heard many times from travel agents, what does ACTA do for us? But we are working hard every day for travel agents and they don’t know what we are doing,” said Jean-Luc Beauchemin, regional director of ACTA in Quebec. “So, with that kind of agreement, it’s the way to spread the message, to show people what we are doing for them. It’s a very good deal for ACTA to show what we are doing for them because we are working hard for travel agents.”

“I think our existing members will be happier (now with this partnership),” McCaig said. “They will be very pleased. And if they tell everybody else that they’re happy, then I think we will continue to grow in membership. Mostly our members are satisfied, but there is more opportunity for sure to get our message out there.”