INDEPENDENT travel agent consortium Worldchoice has introduced a new form of affiliate membership to reduce red tape and free-up a third of agents’ time to focus on holiday sales.
The scheme, aimed at new start-ups and existing members wishing to restructure, will offer ABTA bonding and licensing under its commercial arm Worldchoice Travel/Enterprises.
Inanda Travel in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, run by Annie French, is the first to join Worldchoice, while 17 other agents have expressed an interest.
Head office will carry out the lion’s share of the agency’s paperwork and agents will pay a £500 monthly fee instead of the usual annual membership fee to join. The move follows feedback from members saying they are too bogged down with admin to sell holidays.
Chairman and managing director Colin Heal said: “Agents are fed up with admin and want someone else to take it on. This allows them to remain their own bosses, stay on the high street or work from home, but takes away the burden of admin.”
Heal said the scheme could boost the 520-strong membership, hit by up to 30 branch closures this year because of trading conditions, but ruled out poaching other Triton members.
“We’re not looking for massive expansion but this will help us retain existing members and attract new ones. For the average agent it should free up 30% of their time.”
Affiliated agents still receive their full commission payments, he added. Tasks run by head office include operators’ payments, quarterly ABTA returns, and help with filling in tax and VAT returns. Agents would have access to savings on bank charges, merchant fees of 1.2% and Worldchoice membership benefits, including Triton Search technology and deals.
- Worldchoice will appoint a separate managing director if Heal extends his retirement date beyond June 2007. Heal is considering staying on a further year.