Advantage commercial director Julia Lo Bue-Said talks to Juliet Dennis about relationships with operators, the recently-signed deal with TUI Travel and how it is encouraging agents to boost their margins
With all the commercial deals Advantage is working on, it’s a miracle Julia Lo Bue-Said has had time to take breath in the last few months.
Since the Triton Travel Group officially admitted it was ditching joint commercial deals, Advantage has upped the ante with rival consortia by rolling out the first of a raft of broader and longer-term agreements with suppliers.
Already in the bag are deals with TUI Travel – after a gap of more than two years – Gold Medal Travel, and The Allbury Travel Group. A further deal is being hammered out with Travel 2/4.
The change in approach to achieve more “meaningful” relationships with tour operators could signify a shift in the way operators and agents work together in future.
And for Julia, with more deals due to be announced soon, it’s a case of head down, full steam ahead, and watch this space.
What is Advantage’s strategy on its new commercial deals with tour operators?
What Advantage is trying to do is create win-win situations to see what commercial deals could look like – is it the product, differentiation, exclusive deals, access to hotels, brochures, or joint branding?
Maybe partnerships need to look different and we are working on what that could mean. Sometimes we don’t deliver unless the arrangements look different.
There are some operators we want to get closer to. We are now looking at two to three-year deals and overbranded brochures, while our focus has been to get our brand on as many brochures as possible.
The reason for the change at Triton [ditching joint deals] is that our needs as consortia are different – that became evident early on [after Triton was formed].
What’s the rationale behind the deal with TUI Travel?
Our members switched off Thomson in 2005. It became the tour operator you only sold if you had to. Agents will still be wary but we are a membership organisation and we have to take the emotion out of it and look at it commercially.
Members were saying they wanted to work with Thomson – some agents in Norwich need to because TUI commands the flights out of the local airport. TUI has recognised the need to work selectively through agents and our members now have an enhanced deal. It’s up to members to decide what’s best for them.
Is Advantage encouraging more members to dynamically package holidays?
We would encourage more agents to look at it but there is a fine balance between dynamic packaging and working closely with operators in partnerships.
Operators have forced agents’ hands on dynamic packaging. Agents may not want to be tour operators but they are having to invest in the technology because of the margins.
The more agents dynamically package, the more they realise they can make a decent margin. The ones that are really doing it are the big call centres. Most retailers are working with technology suppliers to get the right content.
Are tour operators’ direct-sell tactics still a problem for agents?
It’s naive to think operators cannot have direct business. The trouble is members will have situations where they cannot take bookings because they can’t compete on price.
Why can’t suppliers support us more proactively on price matching? Operators offer discounts when they don’t need to, usually online. Web pricing is still an issue and there will be times of year when you cannot match what they are offering.
Agents do moan about direct pricing policies and discounting but they are not moaning because they want to – we are talking about people’s livelihoods. It frustrates me that people think direct numbers are old hat – it’s a real issue.
Is the Triton ATOL good news for Advantage members, bearing in mind agents have to book Triton Rooms’ accommodation?
It’s a positive move and hopefully it will encourage more members to use Triton products.
It offers Triton Rooms, so for our agents it’s not the complete answer but it gives them an opportunity if they are not already dynamically packaging. We have had a lot of enquiries and it’s something we will promote. I think agents will look at it as they do any preferred supplier and assess it.
What progress has Advantage made on helping agents specialise in different niche areas?
We have specialised in winter sports, cruise and luxury by setting up groups for agents to learn about those areas. The groups – which are now just finishing their first year – are not made up of our top performing agents, but have been chosen for others who want to grow their businesses in those areas.
We have just organised an advert in the July issue of Good Housekeeping, which is a call to action for our cruise agents. The ad directs callers to agents in our cruise specialist group.
It’s the first time we have done this in a major publication and it’s the kind of thing we will be doing more of to get the Advantage brand more recognised.
Does Advantage plan to increase recognition of its brand to encourage more agents to use it on their shop fronts?
Right now there is no benefit in displaying the Advantage brand but hopefully it can complement others in the future if we can get customers to understand what it stands for.
At the moment it demonstrates to agents that they are part of a bigger group. We need to build the brand’s value before we expect members to use it. We have 300 members who are fully branded and in time more members will want to use the brand.
Profile
- Age: 37
- Lives: Potters Bar, Hertfordshire
- Status: Married to Jim, with two boys Paolo, two and Stefano, seven.
- Education: BTEC in Travel and Tourism, College of Distributive Trades, London
Employment History
- 1988-90: Worked as a travel agent for WHSmith in Brent Cross.
- 1990-94: Joined Best Travel Group, working in reservations then sales and marketing.
- 1994-95: Joined Balkan Holidays as sales and marketing executive.
- 1995: Started at Advantage as commercial co-ordinator.
