A first meeting of what could become a powerful new travel agent group is due to take place today, Travel Weekly understands.
Around 12 agent and agency groups are expected to be present at the meeting of the mooted Association of Travel Agents.
These include representatives of the online agency community which has raised concerns about new European package travel regulations which they say threaten to “outlaw” the agency model.
But it is understood the meeting will have representatives of Hays Travel, Midcounties Co-op and The Travel Network Group, which incorporates TTA and Worldchoice.
It is thought there will not be any representation from the Advantage Travel Centres consortium.
Barrhead Travel chairman Bill Munro is the favourite to chair of the new group and he has indicated he would be interested in the role.
Although On Holiday Group chief executive Steve Endacott has been the most public face of the proposed new group, it has the support of the Lowcost Travel Group and a number of OTAs including On The Beach, Travel Republic, Holiday Discount Centre and Bookable Holidays.
Today’s meeting will focus on how the group can fight the proposed new European Package Travel Directive, discussion of which dominated the recent Abta Travel Convention.
Concerns that it will propose a widening of the scope of the legislation to cover dynamic packaging when a first draft is published next year sparked an outcry from online agents.
This led to claims that a tour-operator dominated Abta had been lobbying against their interests in Europe, something it denied, and to demands to create a separate group outside the association.
Separately, Abta’s online agency membership is poised to set up its own group to lobby the European Commission under the auspices of Abta.
Today’s agent meeting is due to take place as Abta board member Noel Josephides, managing director of eastern Mediterranean specialist Sunvil, issues a warning to traditional agents about siding with the OTAs.
Writing in this week’s Travel Weekly he said: “The current tactic, it seems, is to try to convince standard travel agents that their interests are the same as those of the OTAs. Beware travel agents.
“The OTAs are your biggest competitors and are taking bookings that would have come to you. OTAs can neither offer the service that you do or the know-how and they work exactly like direct sell tour operators.”