Travel Counsellors has challenged its agents to hit margins of 12% during the new year peak selling period.
The agency is urging greater adoption of its in-house selling system Phenix, which now provides a Quote and Book function for tailor-made packages.
Most travel counsellors achieve a 10% margin but the new Phenix system is said to have raised earnings of the biggest adopters by 2.8%.
Sales director Malcolm Hingley told more than 800 agents at the home‑based agency’s annual conference in Manchester at the weekend they deserved to earn more.
“12% in January, would that not be phenomenal? That’s what is achievable. Let’s protect our business and get the value out of that business,” he said.
Travel Counsellors currently has 429 agents taking the Phenix training programme, which now accounts for 34% of all transactions by the firm’s agents.
Kirsten Hughes, commercial director, told agents: “Quote and Book will transform all your businesses. It’s the biggest thing we have done in technology in 20 years. But we are scraping the surface of what this system can do.
“Those not using it are making a choice not to transform their business. You are making the wrong choice by not using this system.”
Hughes said the default margin in Phenix had been set at 15% but she believes it ought to be higher – more like the 20% margin tour operators expect to achieve.
Hughes revealed the margin on package bookings made on the system was 15.8% in the UK and 15.5% globally.
Travel counsellors in Ireland have been quickest to adopt Quote and Book and last year saw earnings rise by almost a tenth to 12.2%.