Rather than a planet, MARS stands for “Multi Access Reservation System,” a new travel agent service. With this they give customers information about hotel rooms and airline seats, but travel agents can also quickly call up a ski mountain on a cathode tube screen and provide a current display of snow conditions.
In one of the major ski markets in the U.S., Rotary Ski and Travel of Stratford, Conn., offered late spring skiers in southern Connecticut the use of its computer link with the new ITT MARS-Plus system, as it is called, for checking the quickly changing snow conditions in the major ski regions of the nation.
Joseph Quiriconi, president of Rotary Ski and Travel and the owner of a ski shop, used the system all winter to produce a “hard copy” print-out of each day’s ski conditions as they appeared in the MARS-Plus system, and then posted it in his ski shop. In addition, a special snow phone was established in the adjacent travel center, offering skiers a last-minute check of any ski area in the country.
The MARS-Plus service has a computer filing system with codes enabling a travel center to call up individual mountain conditions or an entire region so skiers may “shop” for their destination by computer. Each day at 3 p.m. the MARS-Plus network provides newly updated snow conditions, and report data such as “SNOWMASS, COLO: PKD PWDER/11 LIFTS, 65 TRAILS OPEN.” Present snowdepth and current new snow is also provided.
The significance to ski area managements is that MARS-Plus brings together in one place—the point of the ski vacation transaction—a communications and reservations process which projects the entire package against a backdrop of the current snow conditions of a given ski area. The ITT MARS system handles the entire trip, including independently “walking up and down the aisles” of several airlines to check for itself on the last seats available.
“With MARS-Plus, our direct access into the computers of Eastern, TWA, Braniff, Northwest Orient, Ozark, Piedmont, Republic, Air Florida, British Airways—and the list is growing—puts us in the positon of making the first-hand judgment here of which airline to use and where the last seats are to be found,” says Quiriconi.
“Even if there are no seats available, we—ourselves—can put the traveler on the wait list and watch his or her name work its way up the list of one or more airlines.”
Beyond air reservations, the skier traveling to Denver can make car rental arrangements directly into car rental company computers. And, if the Rockies-bound skier wishes to spend a night in Denver, direct access into hotel computers by MARS can assure a room will be there, along with the car.
Laura Quiriconi, manager of the Rotary Travel operation, says the MARSPlus automatic updating of airline fares is a real boon to travelers in these times of rapidly changing rates and special travel plans. “For example,” she says, “do you realize there are over 12 different fare rates to Los Angeles? How much you pay depends on which day, which hour and whether it is light or dark and several other factors. These variables produce a lot of unhappy travelers when they arrive in Los Angeles and another convention-goer has just arrived and paid a lot less to get there than he or she did.”
“With MARS, the direct, multiple access into the computers of several airlines gives us all of the rate and travel options that can match the traveling style and pocket book of the business person and vacationer alike.”
Through MARS-Plus, the ITT network also produces what it calls “demand ticketing.” A press of a button can print a ticket instantly, with all of the hotel and auto rental information included with the travel itinerary. Or, it can hold the ticket until the traveler is leaving, or switch it to the airline counter at the airport for in-person pickup.
One of the features of the system that travel consultants also appreciate is that their business dealings with each airline are separate and, thus, no one airline has complete, overall knowledge of where they are placing their business. This is making the local travel business more independent.
And, for skiers chasing snowflakes, MARS points out the latest snow conditions. This enables them to be independent and to judge for themselves where to go for their ski vacations.
Are You Plugged Into MARS?
We wondered: how does management know if its mountain is in the MARS-Plus network? Now that there are over 700 MARS terminals sitting in travel offices, does this know-it-all remember to call up your ski area? And, if so, does what it says about your mountain match your latest and true snow conditions?
With that wondering, we entered the computer network maze with this basic question: “Who tells the computer?” We discovered that MARS is only a conduit. It has no snow condition intelligence of its own, but it does know who to ask: the computers of TWA and Eastern Airlines, and other major participating airlines.
David Venz, of TWA’s New York based public relations staff, and Howard Goldberg, Eastern’s Southern Connecticut passenger sales manager, report that the sources for snow data are the ski resorts, the airlines locally (like the Boston or Denver offices), and tourists boards, regional ski marketing associations and visitor’s bureaus.
They also advise ski area managers to check the nearest airlines sales office. The local manager can tell you if and how your snow conditions are reported. Moreover, they say, she or he will be glad to hear from you since your interest could result in boosting the airline traffic to the city that serves your mountain.
But, Voila! If the local effort is not fruitful, we have succeeded in turning up “The Source” for the Eastern GENIE computer information system available through MARS—and, of course, at airlines sales offices and desks. In addition to weather, distances and other data related to travel, GENIE’s master, Ms. Kae Kay Gray, located in Miami, Fla. (telephone 305-873-6511), spoon-feeds the computer services with ski conditions and data all winter, Monday through Friday.
Obviously, when you add all the airline outlets to the MARS system you begin to see how important it is to find out what these terminals are saying about you behind your back—if anything! Summer’s a good time to see if your mountain has any terminal problems.
K.A.M.
