Advantage is to launch an in-house tour operation to provide members with pre-packaged holidays under its own Atol.
Advantage Holidays is aimed at members who do not have their own Atol licence or for those who do not want to sell holidays under the new Flight-Plus Atol regulations.
The consortium is in the process of getting its own Iata licence and will act as principal for all bookings.
The first holidays will be available from the autumn and are likely to be cruise packages, with mass-market holidays to come later.
They will be available to book on the Gateway system, by phone. The system was launched three years ago at the consortium’s conference in Lucerne having been developed in partnership with technology specialist Multicom.
Speaking to Travel Weekly at the consortium’s 2013 conference in Malaga, leisure director Julia Lo Bue-Said said: “Since the new Atol regulations came in, we are finding that members don’t want to use their Atol. The reality is agents are having to let some business go.
“Plugging a tour operation in is straightforward for us because we have the booking tool in place.”