Travel agencies explore the Web.

Business is booming for Web-based travel and reservation services like Priceline.com and Travelocity. And market analysts say itPs a trend that_s likely to continue. By 2004, $34 billion of travel business will be transacted on the Web, according to Forrester Research, a market research firm based in Cambridge, Mass. The rapidly changing face of the travel industry has forced even successful traditional operators to rethink their business strategies. In 1982, Michael Brent established and quickly built an international franchise network of travel agencies. But sensing the Web boom, Brent, president and chief executive of Travel Network, and his executive vice president, Stephanie Abrams, recently merged their Englewood Cliffs-based firm with a publicly traded company, giving them the capital to build a powerful cyberspace presence. Now called Etravnet.com, the company is helping its franchisees around the world -- which continue to use the Travel Network name -- develop and maintain on-line reservation services, in addition to providing traditional service.Travel Network basically takes people who have no experience in travel, trains them in a five-week training program, and finds them a location to build a store to the specifications that they have designed over 18 years. It costs $30,000 to buy the franchise, which is a license and training. Then it costs about $15,000 for them to build a location, fully furnished and turnkey. Total, there are 380 units domestically, and the balance are overseas. Based on surveys done by third-party publications, they are the leading franchiser of start-up agencies in the United States. The agency receives an interactive Web site, which has booking engines so their customers can go on the site and do full bookings. The consumer can go to travelnetwork.com and find the Web site for a travel agency location that_s convenient for them.