MIDCONSORT has boosted its campaign to sign up a total of 300 branches by next year after merging with 60-branch consortium Travelcall.
Under the agreement, the Travelcall group will be renamed Midconsort on January 1, and Travelcall’s chief executive Brendan Maguire will relinquish his position for a directorship on the Midconsort board.
Maguire, proprietor of Quartz Travel in Glasgow and a city-breaks tour operation called Weekenders, said the two groups complement each other.
“Midconsort is always marketing itself as being fiercely independent, which is also our philosophy. We wanted to expand our consortium, but didn’t want to become aligned to one of the major tour operators,” he said.”We are strong in the flight-only side and Midconsort is strong in the package market. Midconsort is Midlands-based. Travelcall is spread over Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England, so the combined group has good geographical spread.”
Midconsort chief executive Sue Foxall said she is close to signing up another consortium but refused to reveal details. “Since I have been chief executive we have managed to get almost 40 new members on board. The Travelcall deal takes us collectively on to another level. In 12 months’ time I expect people will be ringing to congratulate me on having over 300 members.”
She added: “People are now coming after Midconsort rather than us chasing after them, particularly after the ABTA Convention in Cairns when we stressed that we will never form any alliance which will divide the members.”