Flight consolidator Aviate is to partner with travel agents wanting to set up their own specialist tour operating businesses.
It is the first time the company – which will act as the principal – has worked with travel businesses in this way.
West country travel agency C The World is the first partner and will launch golf specialist operator Tee The World in August under the company’s new Aviate Journeys division.
Aviate Journeys will act as the tour operator – the Atol holder – and provide a suite of back-office services including supplier expertise, payment handling, marketing and sales support and a reservations platform. As the operator, Aviate will take responsibility for clients’ health and safety, and source hotel contracts.
The ‘Journeys Partner’, which acts as an agent of Aviate, would be responsible for deciding their own portfolio of product, setting their own profit levels, managing their own sales and marketing and taking bookings.
Aviate Journeys is aimed at travel agents or travel professionals who want to set up niche tour operations or established business owners outside the industry, which want to start up a tour operation, as well as existing tour operators looking to expand.
Aviate managing director Michael Edwards said the company hopes to forge long-term partnerships within the trade. It is already in talks with other businesses and will announce other new partners by the end of the year.
He said: “Our philosophy is driven by a commitment to close partnerships with suppliers and clients and this ethos is an integral part of Journeys. It is very different to anything we’ve ever launched before.
“Our senior management team have extensive experience in tour operating, and we will use this to help companies launch to market or make the transition to their next phase in their business plans.”
Carolyn Park, director of C The World, will offer a range of upmarket golf packages worldwide, including in Europe, South Africa and Mauritius, under its Tee The World brand.
She said: “It was either a case of us getting our own Atol – which was going to be an unknown for us – or finding someone to provide what we needed. They are our belt and braces. They have a lot of experience and know all the pitfalls. It was a no-brainer.”
Park added: “I believe there is a gap in the market for a trade only golf specialist providing bespoke packages to agents. Agents can get a lot of business from their local golf clubs and they don’t need to know about golf.”