Dallas Area Travel Company Joins
American Express Rep Network
By Nick Verrastro

American Express and ARTA Travel, a full-service travel agency based in Plano, TX, have announced that ARTA Travel has joined the American Express U.S. Representative Travel Network.

Brand Recognition

Steve McSwain, executive vice president of ARTA Travel Service, told Travel Trade that the American Express Rep affiliation not only brings brand recognition but also will enhance all three aspects of ARTA Travel Service’s business — corporate travel management, incentive and affinity groups and luxury vacation planning.

ARTA Travel Service, established in 1979, is not affiliated with the trade group, the Association of Retail Travel Agents. Rather, the company name, which predates ARTA’s presence in Texas, is derived from the acronym for Accurate and Reliable Travel Agents.

McSwain said that American Express has partnerships and “a desire to serve their Platinum and Centurion cardholders that fits perfectly into what we do.”

On the corporate side, said McNair, American Express is providing a program in which it refers the high-end VIP clients of its corporate accounts, such as the CEOs, COOs and CFOs, to local Amex reps for high-level service.

“The affiliation is a natural fit on the corporate side for that and on the leisure side for programs they provide to their cardholders,” he noted.

McSwain said that the Amex Rep affiliation will enable the Dallas-area travel company to better serve its considerable number of high-end affinity groups by offering additional benefits, like customizable gift cards.

It will also enable ARTA Travel Service to capture additional pieces of its incentive clients’ business, such as gift cards for incentive prizes, besides the travel rewards the company already provides to these clients.

McSwain said that ARTA Travel has grown from its roots in corporate travel (corporate still accounts for 55% of its business) to incentive groups and high-end affinity groups, in addition to the luxury travel in which it has always specialized.

The affinity groups business was a natural outgrowth of the company’s incentive group business, itself an outgrowth of its corporate business, because the agency uses the same ground operators and contacts for its incentives and affinity groups.

ARTA Travel, in fact, has developed a lucrative niche in the group market — running travel clubs at a number of country clubs and producing group tours, such as cooking schools in Tuscany and wine tours in Napa Valley.

McSwain said that ARTA Travel runs two of these groups every week. “We do about 100 groups a year.”

He said that his company is not so much a travel agency in the sense that it is booking air tickets and hotels but rather is a special projects company.

“We are meeting the needs of the clients, customizing travel for what their needs are. We try to drill down to find out what they need,” said McSwain.

“We really are more in a project type of business, and any successful travel company has had to become that.”

‘Circle of Life’

McSwain noted that ARTA Travel spoils its groups and goes over the top for them. For one group on an African safari, it flew a grand piano into the bush and hired an Elton John impersonator to perform “Circle of Life” at sunset. And it has arranged private audiences with the Pope in Rome.

“If we are doing a wine tour, we send our customers their tour documents in a wooden wine case with corkscrew. Our customers feel like they are really special,” said McSwain.

“We are more like the Titleist [golf ball] vs. the Top Flight. When someone wants to treat their guests to a little more than the standard, that is where we excel.”

ARTA TRAVEL
5700 W. Plano Parkway, Suite 1400, Plano, Texas 75093
972 422-4000
1-800-678-ARTA

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