SPARC chief executive Ken McLeod has urged the industry in Scotland to shed its insularimage to help prevent business from leaving the country.
He said agents must embrace the future and become more outward looking to protect their future.
“Too much business goes out of Scotland, especially to direct operators such as Teletext,” said McLeod.
“I will be stressing to my members of the need to branch out and explore other avenues such as Teletext. We are too Scottish-orientated.”
In a bid to become more sophisticated, a SPARC Internet site will be launched in the next two months which will direct customers to members’ shops.
The pages, however, won’t carry the SPARC name.
“It has no public recognition and never will have because nobody knows what the Passenger Agents’ Association is,” he said. “I seriously thought about changing the SPARC name but it does have recognition in the trade.”