More than a fifth of delegates at The Travel Convention this year will be travel agents.

In total, 22% of just over 900 delegates will be agents – although the big two are only sending three agents between them.

Thomas Cook has two agents attending and two senior staff, while TUI Travel has a team of 26 staff, including one First Choice travel agent.

Overall, 100 agents are being hosted by companies to attend the conference in Barcelona from October 6-9, and 38% of delegates are ABTA members.

A spokeswoman said the total number of delegates was on a par with last year, adding: “The whole point of rebranding the ABTA conference to The Travel Convention was to open it up to the industry and not focus on ABTA; that was what delegates wanted.”