Advantage Travel Partnership has set out a “clear vision” for the future with a five-year plan encouraging members to be “bold and ambitious”.
The consortium’s Vision 2020 strategy, which has been in the pipeline for 18 months, aims to drive members’ businesses and increase their revenue.
Speaking to Travel Weekly, managing director Julia Lo Bue-Said (pictured) described the strategy as “really bold and ambitious” and said it was something the organisation hadn’t produced before.
She said the plan would make members “fit for purpose for the future” by arming them with the tools they need to attract new clients.
The strategy, revealed to members last week, features more consultancy services and investment in technology, including the introduction of a customer relationship management system and a dynamic packaging sales platform.
Advantage also plans to place more emphasis on its managed services operation, which it aims to transform into a cornerstone of the business. The growth plan involves increasing the number of Advantage Managed Services
(AMS) members from 20 outlets to 128 within the next five years and introduction of a Corporate AMS offering.
In the first year, Advantage is looking to boost incremental revenue through AMS by £18 million to a combined turnover of £40 million.
Lo Bue-Said said that for the past 18 months, since she took over as managing director, the organisation had been looking at ways to position itself for the future.
She said: “One of the things the business has been great at is working closely with members and helping them through day-to-day challenges, but if I’m completely honest, we haven’t been great at leading the membership forward.”
Non-executive chairman Steven Esom said it was important to take the business “on a new path” because the profile and needs of consumers were changing quickly and fewer people were interested in the “miserable world of the online environment”.