Midcounties’ Co-operative Travel Consortium has switched its annual conference from Majorca to Ibiza after doubling its membership in the wake of Thomas Cook’s collapse.
The consortium now boasts 176 members after taking on 104 members following the failure of Cook, including Freedom Travel Group, last September.
It will now hold its conference at the Grand Palladium White Island Resort & Spa in Ibiza on April 20-23.
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The property is larger than the Iberostar Jardin del Sol Suites in Majorca, which had been lined up to host the event a few days later.
Alison Holmes, head of The Co-operative Travel Consortium, said the group was forced to move the conference to accommodate its larger membership. She said: “The original venue was not big enough.”
Holmes said the conference would be attended by a higher number of suppliers as a result. Agents are being urged to sign up fast.
“There has been a huge amount of interest from suppliers because of the growth of the consortium. This conference is an ideal opportunity for new members to network with existing members and understand the consortium. We are getting very close now [to full capacity],” she said.
The itinerary is being finalised but is likely to include workshops to cover the consortium’s diverse membership, with afternoons free for networking or to explore the resort.
New agencies had now “bedded in”, said Holmes, who is recruiting for a second business development manager to support members.
More than half of Freedom’s agency members moved to Midcounties’ consortium, while more than 100 homeworkers, formerly part of Freedom’s Personal Travel Advisors division, are understood to have moved to work for consortium members.