ADVANTAGE
Travel Centres has pleaded with tour operators to lift the lid on their future
sales plans to help independents compete.
Advantage
sales and marketing director Colin O’Neill said the emergence of new
distribution channels highlighted a pressing need for vertically integrated
operators to lay their cards on the table.
He said he
wants to know how much the top four operators sell in-house, direct, on-line,
and through independents as well as how they view the role of independents
overall.
O’Neill,
speaking at the Distribution Strategies for the Travel Industry conference in
France, admitted it could mean Advantage travel agents reassessing relations
with certain operators and slimming down the present 150 operators the
consortium has commercial deals with. That number has already been cut from
about 200 a year ago.
But he
hopes it would lead to closer long-term ties, with agents developing stronger
relationships with two or three of the big tour operators.