Thinking like a trade association is no advantage

Thinking like a trade association is no advantage

I READ with considerable interest the comments of Sir John Harvey-Jones (Travel Weekly April 9) regarding Worldchoice being a “debating society” and lacking the expertise needed to transform the non-profit-making organisation into a successful commercial enterprise.

I wholeheartedly subscribe to the view that member directors, who own their own businesses, find it difficult to make objective and impartial decisions affecting the well-being of the enterprise as a whole.

More than a decade ago, Advantage took the brave decision to appoint non-member executive directors to steer the organisation on its path to becoming atotally commercially focused entity.It was a decisive action from which the membership benefited greatly.

However, having spent 10 years of my life steering Advantage on a commercial course, I am now concerned that having taken outright control of the organisation, the president appears to be trying to emulate Worldchoice and return Advantage to thinking and acting like a trade association.

It didn’t work before, which was why it was changed.

And in today’s fast and furious travel industry, it won’t work now.

Ron Muir, former managing director, Advantage Travel Centres, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire