ADVANTAGE Travel Centres is to host a conference for its franchise members only, heightening speculation that the consortium will split between those who support Airtours and those that do not.
Commercial director Neil Armorgie defended the decision to hold a separate conference for members and denied it would affect unity at Advantage.
“I’m pretty sure we will hold a conference for franchise members only this year,” said Armorgie. “We’re keen to do it if we get the venue, and it’s not a split. It makes sense because we can deal with issues that only affect franchise members.”
The atmosphere at the Advantage conference was often tense with the talk of a split high on the agenda. Stephen Murray of RTW Travel Consultants in Dartford said: “There was a bit of animosity between the franchisees and the non-franchisees when the conference started.”
Armorgie denied that Advantage had been reluctant to confront issues at the conference. Members at a closed meeting on the eve of the conference were told “not to wash their dirty linen in public”, but Armorgie said this had been misinterpreted and was purely a reference to keeping issues off the agenda that were not pertinent to independents.
David Balson from RTWTravel Consultants in Dartford said:”It has been a traumatic time for Advantage members over the last 15 months and I would say the conference has been deliberately soft.”n See story page 5, Comment page 6 and conference report pages 20 and 21