| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 21/08/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 76 |
| Copyright: Other |
Advantage travel centres
Urbanweb secures temporary call-centre business contract
ADVANTAGE Travel Centres has allowed Urbanweb to run its out-of-hours call-centre business while it decides who should operate it on a permanent basis.The consortium has just closed its tendering process to pick one or more members to run call-centre services in the evenings, at weekends and on public holidays (Travel Weekly August 7).
Marketing manager Ray Dickinson said Urbanweb, which is among the bidders for the permanent contract, was filling in because the consortium needed to put an out-of-hours number on Airtours’ over-branded brochures quickly.
He stressed that the tendering process would be carried out fairly and that Urbanweb had the same chance as anyone else.
Urbanweb managing director Steve Endacott said: “We expect to be looked at in the same way as everyone else. It is not a done deal.”
He denied Urbanweb had joined Advantage in order to qualify to run its call-centre business. Urbanweb previously applied to run ARTAC Worldchoice’s call-centre business but lost out to Thomas Cook (Travel Weekly July 24).
Advantage claims applications to run its call-centre operation are in double figures. A shortlist will be considered by the board on October 18, with the launch of the service on November 1.
Endacott: expects equal consideration alongside rivals