Protected Trust Services (PTS) has revealed a target of 1,000 members over the next five years following its rebrand.
The consortium announced a new logo, straplines and simplified website as part of the bid to raise its profile and expand its membership, which currently stands at around 400 travel agents and tour operators.
At the launch, chief executive Daniel Landon said PTS now accounts for 12% of all Atol licences in the country. In the last year 200 new members have joined, with a “huge increase in applications from agents”.
“We have continually grown over the last eight years and in the last few years travel agents have become a high percentage of our growth. We can see it [our membership] reaching 50-50 agents and operators,” he said.
Trust accounts are a central part of PTS’ offering, but Landen outlined other PTS benefits such as lower operating costs, not being tied into a consortium contract, the freedom to set up suppliers and payments on the PTS system and an Atol under the member’s name.
“What’s most important is our own members; we are a member-based and we work for them. They own their businesses. We understand the pain they go through to run their own travel business in today’s world and we want to support them,” he said, adding he hoped Atol reform would make it “easier to get an Atol licence”.
He stressed the rebrand was more about PTS’ products and making them accessible in the trade than its expansion plans to more than double its membership.
“A thousand members would be a nice number for us to get to but the rebrand is more about the product and getting that out to the industry. We want to make sure the industry understands who we are and what we do,” he said, but added: “I hope more people become like-minded and see the opportunity and speak to us. There is definitely strength in numbers.”