Advantage managing director Ron Muir vigorously denied claims that franchisees had lost the right to do as they please since the consortium’s tie-up with Airtours.
He said Airtours had not dictated to Advantage and the deal was a flexible package that had been negotiated and discussed democratically.
“The plain fact of it is that when you weigh it all up, the proposition put forward by Airtours was by far the best,” he said.
Muir also denied that the situation would create a two-tier system as better deals became available to franchisees.”Non-franchisees are different but not second-class citizens. I could not say that there is never going to be a split but I think people in Advantage have got real solid business sense so a split would be very unlikely,” he said.
The decision by the Campaign for Real Travel Agents to throw out franchisees was very strange, he said. “They are still independent and will sell what the customer wants. There is an agenda that we do not know about within the CARTA organisation.”
A forthcoming advertising campaign for franchisees funded by Airtours will promote the attractiveness of independents but Muir denied the irony of the situation. “As long as we give best value to customers, Idon’t think the customers cares who owns what.”