by John McEwan, Advantage Travel Centres chief executive
We have come to the end of another hugely successful Advantage conference in Malta, providing the opportunity for us to share achievements and plans with delegates.
Despite the backdrop of a difficult market, Advantage has made great strides forward in both our leisure and corporate businesses.
We now have a total group turnover of £3.5 billion, which places us as the leading travel distribution business in the UK.
Our leisure business goes from strength to strength, with revenues up year on year.
Our marketing strategy focussed on obtaining and retaining customers has been particularly successful, whilst our unique Travel Gateway ‘one stop shop’ selling system is now being used actively by 360 members.
Advantage managed services is achieving great momentum and is a complementary offering to our traditional membership model.
We are also pleased to have added 96 new locations in the past year, with Consort group from Northern Ireland and Midcounties Co-operative joining our membership.
Advantage is also unique in being the only consortium to have a major presence in business travel, with 36 of the top 50 business travel companies in the UK being a part of our group.
Our growth in this sector has been impressive with sales currently up 9% over the previous year. We also have an international dimension too.
We have corporate and leisure travel representation in 36 countries around the world, to provide truly global support to our members.
Advantage is now uniquely placed as a consortium in being 100% owned by its members. This removes any conflict of interest and ensures that everything that we do is entirely for the benefit of members.
The Advantage conference was the perfect platform to share our progress with members and business partners, as well as listening to inspirational speakers, such as Michael Johnson, one of the best athletes ever.
Roll on Malaga in 2013.