Travel agent consortium the Elite Travel Group will use its conference next month to unveil plans for a two-tier commission structure.
The Elite Travel Group‘s 30th annual conference, in Jerez, Spain, on October 12-14, has attracted 140 delegates, of which 90 are agents.
Chairman Neil Basnett said the commission structure will involve the creation of Club Elite, a top tier of no more than 50 preferred operators. The rest of the consortium’s operators – about 70-80 – will fall into the second tier.
The consortium will start talks soon with operators, which will be put into a category depending on their support for members and sales volumes.
Elite has also set up a marketing group for agents specialising in upmarket holidays called Ethos. Already 20 members have signed up to be part of Ethos, which plans to offer special deals with upmarket operators, a newsletter and its own brochure. It costs members an extra £175 a year.
Basnett said: “Some top-end operators want to give support to the consortium but only want it to go to 40 or 50 agents that promote their product. They may be reluctant to give marketing support to all our agents.”
He said the consortium could set up further groups for sectors such as cruise.
Meanwhile, the group has invited former and non-members to attend its conference and is offering 30% off subscription fees if they join.
So far, up to six companies have signed up to attend, including members of Worldchoice and Global.
Basnett added: “We are hoping by coming to the conference it will persuade them to join or come back to us. We’ve had calls from Worldchoice members unhappy about the Triton merger.”