Pulse Travel Marketing, KAI Group join forces

The merger of Pulse Travel Marketing Inc. and The KAI Group will allow the new company’s managing partners to pool their skills as part of an exciting new venture, managing partner Annika Klint has told PAX.

Klint was speaking shortly after it was announced that the two companies would combine their businesses, effective immediately, to become Pulse Travel Marketing. The combined company will bring together teams at both agencies under one umbrella, and The KAI Group will operate as a division of Pulse – servicing the group’s resorts and tour clients. Patrice Bell, Sana Keller and Klint are managing partners in the new company.

The merger, Keller and Bell told PAX, came about as a result of discussions that began at IPW last year. “Both Annika and Patrice were sitting together on a bus at IPW in New Orleans and started a discussion about our core business, values and work philosophy,” they said. “We realized that we had many common values that complimented our book of clients and our business goals.

“This was further discussed with Sana, who agreed about the common goals and thought it would be a great idea to pool our resources to become a bigger, better and stronger team.”

The new company will represent clients from across the travel and tourism spectrum including destination marketing offices, convention and visitor bureaus, hotels & resorts, airlines, cruise lines, and tour operators; Keller and Bell said that the trio’s level of experience and diverse skills made the merger a logical decision.

“The diversity of our strengths is the exact reason why this merger makes so much sense,” they commented. “But the underlining principle was that we shared the same work ethic, integrity, and embraced the strengths that we all brought to the table.

“This merger rounds out our portfolio of clientele and allows us to share resources and provide exceptional services to our book of business.”

Klint told PAX that the managing partners’ diverse strengths would combine in an effective partnership.

“Now we bring three strong women’s strengths into play,” she commented. “When pitching accounts, when just in general doing the work, and handling these accounts, and ensuring that these accounts still get the boutique feel and hands-on approach; you’ve got three individuals with an extensive array of skills in the travel industry, and contacts in the travel industry, that we can all now pool and draw from.”

Each managing partner will have their own area of focus in the combined business, as well as working together to serve the newly-pooled client base and attract new clients. Bell and Klint will specialize in travel trade, while Keller will specialize in public relations and marketing.

“We’re a very powerful combination of strong, creative, energetic, dedicated, and effective executives in the travel trade and tourism industry, each with expertise in many different areas,” read a joint statement released by the managing partners. “We have similar processes, work ethic, and core values and together we can continue to deliver great results for our clients while attracting new business.”