Travelocity Eases Blow As It Leaves Town

“A Town’s Future Is Leaving the Country,” your March 28 article on Clintwood, Va., and Travelocity painted a distorted picture of the Clintwood community and of our actions related to our call center. Clintwood is not the hopeless town depicted. Several companies have expressed interest in our facility. Our senior executives are working closely with local officials to help market Clintwood to other potential employers. Additionally, we provided employees with 11 months notice and the opportunity to relocate, and will invest as much as $750,000 in the Clintwood community through retraining grants to local community colleges, severance, months of medical benefits after the facility closes and retention bonuses.

All of Travelocity’s major competitors, as well as several other major travel companies, decided years ago to begin outsourcing call center jobs to the Philippines, India and other international markets. Only after significant losses last year did Travelocity conclude that we had to make a tough business decision in this area to protect our company and its 2,000 U.S. employees.

Al Comeaux

Vice Pres., Travelocity

Southlake, Texas