CAUGHT IN THE NET.

JORGE ACOSTA HEADS TO THE AIRPORT, HIS BAGS PACKED FOR a business trip, about four times a month. His employer, Edelman Public Relations in Mexico City, uses travel agencies to reserve his flights and hotels, but Acosta has begun dabbling with Internet travel booking to see if better options are available.

He isn't sold--yet. And he's not the only executive with misgivings.

Acosta has turned up discount airfares for simple trips from Mexico City direct to New York. But, he says, more complicated itineraries, as well as hotel reservations, are best with a travel agent. "The thing about travel agents is that you have the advantage of just picking up the phone and saying, 'I'm flying to Monterrey tomorrow. Book everything,'" says Acosta, who works with Edelman's technology clients. "Making your arrangements for business travel online is just not a good investment of your time."

A proliferation of travel Web sites gives on-the-go executives more choices--in theory. The online services issue bold claims about discount airfares, reduced hotel prices and cut-rate cruises. They boast that they can make transportation, lodging and restaurant reservations at the click of a mouse, then even let a traveler know the weather on departure day. But there's still a gap between what the Web claims and what it delivers. Some sites are confusing to navigate, and their prices aren't competitive. Others offer limited options, like a fixed group of hotels. More than anything, Net surfers complain the sites are time consuming.

A study by U.S.-based Consumer Reports Travel Letter concludes that "the Internet is an exciting new tool, but it's no more likely to garner you the best airfare than a low-tech telephone."

Still, that hasn't stopped travel pages from popping up in increasing numbers, especially in Latin America.

In Brazil, Internet service provider Universo Online recently allied with well-known travel agency network Flytour and travel publications Panrotas to offer online travel reservations. Volando.com kicked off travel-booking services in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, with plans to move into Brazil, Chile and the United States before the year closes. Year-old Despegar.com which launched with South American destinations, added the U.S. market to its site in September. "Our U.S. site will provide better fares, more destinations and easier access for U.S. Hispanics traveling to Latin America and Spain for both business and leisure," says CEO Roberto Souviron.

Sites like Viajo.com have taken steps to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of Latin America. In Brazil, where many vacationers don't trust credit cards for online transactions--or simply don't have credit cards--Viajo.com reservations can be paid by check. That option's not available in the United States. Sites catering to Latin America allow visitors to choose between Spanish or Portuguese (sometimes English, too), and many convert final prices into the currency of any country. But they're still far from perfect.

No big deal." I tried [online booking] once, but it was more expensive," says Miguel Gimenez, a business consultant in Maldonado, Uruguay. "On the Internet, the prices for hotels are the normal prices. But through a travel agent in my country, I can get the prices lower by 20% or 30%. They have access to discounts that don't show up on the travel sites or at the hotels' Web sites."

Even before they have the kinks worked out of vacation services, a bevy of Web sites has moved on to a more lucrative market: business travel. In this arena, corporations understandably want to keep prices down. But they also want to get their employees to and from business meetings in the most efficient manner. The traveling executives, meanwhile, have their own set of requirements: some want exercise rooms in their hotels, some prefer airlines with extra business-class perks, others want access to airport VIP lounges with data ports.

"The leisure traveler wants price," says Enrique Felgueres, CEO of Viajo.com, which launched a business travel component to its Web site in November. "For business travel there are two clients: the corporation and the traveler within the corporation.

Felgueres says companies look at the bottom line, maneuvering for ways to cut travel expenses, while their roaming executives want easy booking, upgrades, short layovers and expedited airport check-ins. Viajo.com hopes to nab a share of the corporate travel pie by offering companies customized connections to its online site. The Web site will then automatically favor the company's preferred airline and hotel chains (at which it gets discounts), obey the company's policies on business vs. coach fares and keep track of expenses.

Travel agents can do the same thing, but Felgueres says the process is easier online.

"We allow them access 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can do booking, changes, cancellations, seat preferences. They can book with their frequent flier, get air, car and hotel all at one time," says the Viajo.com chief.

Although some U.S. executives work out their own travel itineraries, then turn them over to a corporate travel agency or book online, Felgueres says secretaries are more likely to handle the task in Latin America. "Today the secretaries call the travel agents," he says. "Now she can just go online. And if she's doing that--taking one of the human beings out of the process--there are fewer mistakes."

Viajo.com isn't the only electronic reservation service with an eye on executive travel.

Travelocity has opened a new executive-oriented site at Business.travelocity.com. And portal StarTravel.com is offering business travel services in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Maybe the electronic travel agents can keep prices down by negotiating special deals with the airlines and hotels. Maybe they let an executive order transportation, lodging, airport shuttles and rental cars without even picking up a phone. But to woo a significant following, they'll have to get rid of the flaws that are making executives like Acosta turn up their noses.

"I just went to New York on an Internet booking," Acosta says. "My experience was not very good," Despite a virtual visit to the hotel where he had a reservation, he found the room and the hotel's location unacceptable and had to move to another.

Airline Web sites seem to be doing a better job with ticketing over the Internet, although the process in Latin America is still incomplete: some carriers don't yet issue e-tickets so the e-bookings must still be followed by ticket deliveries. One frequent business traveler on American Airlines says she's never able to get her seat assignment online and always ends up calling the carrier anyway. In Mexico, travelers who get price quotes online for Aeromexico sometimes land even cheaper fares if they pick up the phone and call the airline directly.

Stepped-up competition has already made some sites gun-shy. Chicago-based Orbitz, a travel Web site founded by major U.S. airlines, pushed back its scheduled late-2000 launch so it could do more testing on the site. The partnership with car rental firms, a vacation and cruise package company, and other travel-service companies will now open to the public on a limited basis in February, with an official launch in June 2001. Orbitz's founding airlines are American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United.

One thing online travel sites could have over traditional travel agents is accessibility to hard-to-find information. "Travel customers want one thing-content," says Sean Greene, founder and CEO of travel Web site Away.com. "In addition to simple booking capabilities, sites will need extensive information on destinations, detailed maps, descriptive pictures, video and other information required by the customer to make an informed purchase decision."

But most of the sites catering to travelers do not currently offer insider information or practical tips. Those that do rely simply on travel guide books. Increasingly, they find themselves up against traditional travel agencies that are online with content and photos of their own.

"You don't have to worry about the Internet putting travel agents out of business," says Felgueres, "In the United States, where online travel is much more developed, only about 6% of the booking is online--and that is projected to be no more than 18% by 2003. In Latin America, not even 1% of the bookings are done online."

That Human Touch

LATIN TRADE'S FICTItious executive, Eldy Toro Rodriguez, faces 11 days jammed with business trips. She must travel from her home in Mexico City to Caracas, on to Miami for a trade conference, then back to Mexico City for her mother-in-law's birthday party. The following week, she has meetings in two cities in Argentina, then one in Santiago, Chile.

Toro Rodriguez was permitted to fly in business class on flights longer than five hours; she asked for hotels with services geared toward executives. And, to make the scenario more interesting, we threw in a trick question: Our exec asked for a ski weekend at Las Lenas resort in Argentina. But Las Lenas is out of season.

We ranked our findings based on a formula that took into account cost, time investment and the comprehensiveness of the travel services.

The results of the survey? It's hard to outdo a travel agent.

Eyeing Tomorrow's Travelers

Latin Americans represent nearly a third of visitors and the number is growing.

MARY A. DEMPSEY

ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS HAVE DENTED LATIN AMERICAN TRAVEL TO the United States, but U.S. officials are gearing up for a new jump. They predict that travel by Mexicans, Central Americans and South Americans to Miami, Los Angeles, New York and other cities will increase by a total of 12% over the next three years.

Currently, 15 million Latin Americans travel to the United States each year, nearly a third of all foreign visitors. "We expect this to grow to 17 million visitors by 2003, representing half of all international visitors to the United States," says Vivian Vasallo, an international trade specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "This is definitely a market that is growing despite the economic problems it has had."

Travel from Argentina dipped slightly last year and arrivals from Brazil fell 27% compared with 1998. Even when belt-tightening was de rigueur in South America, Miami's malls and nightclubs remained jammed with travelers from that region. Arrivals of Mexican, Central American and Caribbean visitors increased in 1999, as did those from Ecuador and Venezuela, where rising prices and flagging economies have eroded buying power.

"Venezuelans like to travel," says Soledad de Garcia, manager of Majestic Tours in Caracas. "Travel is almost as important as eating or studying. Even when times are bad, they will give up other things so they can travel."

Latin Americans have long vacationed in the United States but business travelers are leading the recent groundswell. Airplanes shuttling between the United States and Latin America boast the globe's greatest volume of business and first-class seats. Mexicans, riding the Nafta wave, made up 20% of all international travelers to the United States last year.

"We've seen increases in business travel, I think, because of the globalization and the opening of markets," Vasallo explains. "We're seeing rebounding economies in Latin America, and that means travel will only grow."

U.S. destinations, suddenly spotting the moneymaking potential, are scrambling to get in on the action.

"There are great benefits in doing business with the Latin market," says Phil Hannes, tourism development manager for the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau in California. Hannes' employer is hot to lure West Coast visitors to shops, restaurants, hotels and attractions south of Los Angeles. It moved toward that goal in September by hosting La Cumbre, the annual travel trade fair for Latin American travel operators whose clients favor the United States for business and vacations.

La Cumbre organizer Rick Still says the number of U.S. destinations showing an interest in the Latin American market has reached an all-time high. States like California, which already boasts three cities among the top 12 destinations, hunger for even more.

"We get about 3.6 million [foreign] visitors a year. About 3.1 million of them come from Mexico," says Caroline Beteta, executive director of the California Travel and Tourism Commission, which has hired a representative in Latin America and is producing a Spanish-language IMAX film about the state's attractions. "We're really trying to cast the net far in our relationship with Latin America."

The U.S. spots favored by Latin American travelers, predictably, are large cities with strong Latin cultural roots and significant Spanish-speaking populations. But new competitors are trying to nudge their way into the arena now led by Miami.

Denver, for example, is conducting travel-agent seminars in Mexico, publishing Spanish-language brochures and putting together a Spanish promotional video. Its goal is not only to capture the Latin American ski crowd that visits surrounding Rocky Mountain resorts, but to make itself appealing to non-skiers as well. City officials eagerly point out that a fifth of Denver's citizens speak Spanish.

"We have a close and compact downtown. It's a clean city and a safe city," says Laurie Althen, manager of travel-industry sales for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Our challenge is to get Latin Americans to see us as a destination in our own right."

Key to luring Latin American travelers is air service. That means Los Angeles stands to get a boost from new air service from Sao Paulo aboard Varig and from Buenos Aires aboard Aerolineas Argentinas. Copa Airlines is also offering direct flights to Los Angeles from Buenos Aires, with stops in Panama City.

Airlines, convention centers and hotel chains may be scrambling for new action, but La Cumbre's Still points out that the risky travel industry is no place for the faint-hearted. Nor, he says, is it fertile ground for entrepreneurs seeking short-term riches. "But if you've recognized that our shift is north-south, not east-west, and you're in it for the long haul, this is a good time to be in travel," he says.