5-15-09: Duke: Duke selects two international travel agencies as preferred providers for service, savings

Durham, NC -- When H1N1 flu spread across Mexico, Elaine Madison’s first thought was for Duke students. As the associate director for DukeEngage, Madison knew that no DukeEngage students were studying in Mexico, “but I worried about students travelling to and from Latin America,” she said.

Because Madison arranges all international travel for DukeEngage through the Cardinal Travel Service, a quick phone call to the agency revealed that only one student had travel plans that involved Mexico. Within a few hours, the travel agent had rerouted the student’s travel plans, and Madison was breathing easier.

To support Duke’s expanding global initiatives and provide resources like this for Duke international travelers, Duke has selected two preferred travel agencies: Ovation Corporate Travel and Cardinal Travel Service.

We encourage faculty and staff to use one of these agencies to make their international travel arrangements,” said Jane Pleasants, assistant vice president for Procurement at Duke. “They offer one-stop shopping, from negotiated rates for flights, accommodations, and car rentals, to assisting travelers with required travel documentation. Most importantly, we want to make international travel as worry and risk free as possible for our faculty, staff, and students.”

The Fuqua School of Business has been coordinating travel through one agency for many years and has just announced their upcoming partnership with Ovation Corporate Travel. “We’ve always had a large amount of international travel, but our needs are changing now that we have expanded globally and have more travel that doesn’t begin or end in Durham,” said Jill Worthington, Fuqua’s associate dean. “Having a travel agency with great on-line tools, local service offices in key destinations and expertise in international routing and in negotiating large hotel contracts will help us achieve the best rates and services for our staff, faculty and students.”

Using one of the preferred agencies will make it easier for schools to implement travel policies and procedures.

DukeEngage, for example, learned from their agency that they could save money by being more flexible about program start dates. “Now we have a policy that requires students and staff to offer three possible start dates, and the agency finds the best routing and dates for travel,” Madison said.

Both Ovation and Cardinal handle domestic and international travel. Both will offer Duke faculty, staff and students the opportunity to set up portals to store personal information and preferences to expedite making travel arrangements. Both agencies will also soon be able to link travel plans directly into the Duke Travel Registry, which is hosted on the Duke International website [http://international.duke.edu].

Duke chose the two preferred agencies after extensive work by the International Travel Sourcing Team, which had representation from many different areas of the university, including Madison and Worthington. Their goal was to choose vendors who provided not only outstanding prices, but also outstanding service.

“A good travel agency isn’t just about moving a traveler from one place to another – it is about working in partnership on your business processes,” Madison said.

For more information about these two preferred international travel agencies, visit www.procurement.duke.edu and click on “Travel Services.”

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2009/05/travel_agencies.html