HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International) Meeting Recap

By Frances Kiradjian
President, HSMAI Los Angeles Chapter
CEO, The Kiradjian Group

Topic: Winning In A Branded World - Case Studies In Innovation And Creativity
Speaker: John Fareed, CHME - Partner, Fareed & Zapala Marketing Partners

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Longtime travel industry marketing executive Frances Kiradjian launches consulting business

September 12, 2006, West Hills, Calif. — Frances Kiradjian, former CEO of Reservation Center, Inc. and CCRA in Agoura Hills, Calif., this month launched The Kiradjian Group (TKG), a marketing consulting business based here.

Kiradjian’s tenure with the Reservation Center and CCRA, the providers of 24-hour services and hotel programs to travel agents, spanned 13 years. She also spent 7 years with Carlson Wagonlit Travel working the corporate market throughout Southern California, producing a cumulative 20 years in the travel and tourism industry.

She said she aims to bring that experience to bear in the new business that specializes in online marketing technology to assist any company in the travel and tourism space including hotels, airlines, cruise lines, car rental companies, tour operators, travel agents and others.  Kiradjian launched with a first product, dubbed the KG-Letterhead Branded Email. She said it works from Outlook and can be re-branded and custom designed to meet corporate standards or personalized to the customer’s specs.

She said TKG will offer a number of other online marketing tools, including:
•   Specialized booking systems for tour operators and tourist offices or convention and visitor  bureaus.
•   Promotional marketing direct to mobile devices.

In her previous position, Kiradjian had focused much of her energies on the CCRA hotel program for agents, bringing it from relative obscurity and making it into a key player in the agency consortia marketplace and growing its hotel database. She participated in the purchase last year of Reservation Center, Inc. and CCRA by San Francisco-based Onelink Corporation, after which she stayed on for a year.  The most prominent task was the launch of the CCRA travel agent booking engine after some 7 years in development.

Kiradjian is a member of SKAL—the professional organization of tourism leaders around the world, the elite Vistage Group—the largest CEO organization in the world, as well as current president of HSMAI Los Angeles (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International).

More details on the new business can be found at www.kiradjiangroup.com.

About the Kiradjian Group

The Kiradjian Group is a travel industry consulting business with a specialty in online marketing technology. The company is headed by Frances Kiradjian, its founder, and based in West Hills, California. 

Frances Kiradjian is a longtime senior executive of the travel and tourism industry, having spent the last 13 years as founder and co-owner of CCRA (Computerized Corporate Rate Association), an internationally renowned corporate hotel marketing and preferred rate program.

In her 13 years with CCRA, Kiradjian took the firm from relative obscurity to “key player” status in the consortium hotel program arena, securing most of the major travel agency consortia accounts headquartered in North America with exclusive multi- year contracts. Under her direction, CCRA also pioneered a wide range of lucrative marketing and promotional programs for hotel chains and independent properties around the world. She recently closed the sale of CCRA and it’s parent company, Reservation Center, Inc. (RCI) to Onelink Corporation.

Frances has also assumed leadership roles in a great number of professional organizations in and around her home city of the Los Angeles area. She is currently president of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International), a global organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry. She also serves as director and past president of SMEI (Sales & Marketing Executives International) of Los Angeles, and has held officer positions in many of the dozen- plus international travel industry organizations she has joined.


The Kiradjian Group
Frances Kiradjian
CEO
email: frances@kiradjiangroup.com
phone: 818-883-4363