Two prominent Worldchoice members have joined Advantage Travel Centres, claiming the ethos of Worldchoice has changed under its ownership by The Travel Network Group.
Bailey’s Travel and Howard Travel were among several new Advantage members attending the consortium’s conference last week.
Gary Lewis, group managing director of the Travel Network Group, said he was disappointed to lose the two agencies but was confident that Worldchoice offered “best-in-class commercials, great marketing and Atol solutions for agents”.
Chris Bailey, who had been a member of Worldchoice for more than 20 years and is a former board director, said he moved to Advantage because “the Worldchoice ethos, support structure and commercials have disappeared”.
The Travel Network Group announced in April that it would close its Peterborough office, which services Worldchoice members.
Bailey, whose agency has branches in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, said: “Since Worldchoice was taken over by the TTA, it’s been a different dynamic.
“I thought they would move everything to Peterborough, but the drift is the other way and the support structure has gone.”
Karli Lisiecki, operations manager at Howard Travel, said the agency joined Advantage in February to “remain in the best possible shape for our customers”.
She said: “Advantage offered better commission for our preferred partners, technology, marketing and strong business support for us.”
Lewis said: “Of course we are disappointed when we lose members and it is unusual for members to leave. We have attracted 13 new members to Worldchoice over the last six months and 58 across the group.”