Merlin Travel Group is eyeing expansion into the flight consolidator market after launching a cruise and tour operator division in recent months.
The group has also outlined further growth plans – including expansion of its current membership – as it marks five years in business.
The consortium for travel agents and destination specialist tour operators started in 2019 and by the start of 2020 had eight agents, which grew to 28 members in 2021. It currently has 62 members, mostly self-employed homeworking agents, but hopes to reach 80 by Christmas.
MTG Cruise, for agents who want to run their own specialist cruise businesses, was launched just before the summer, and MTG Holidays, a tailormade tour operation, went live in February.
Managing director Garry Butcher said the group, a member of Protected Trust Services, was now looking to enter the flight-only sector by setting up its own consolidator in ten to 12 months’ time.
This would help its agents to put together their own specialist packages, using flight-only product from its consolidator, under the group’s Atol.
“In the next year we want to consolidate what we’ve got and develop it further. We are in the early stages of talking about Iata and GDS membership, and potentially having our own flight specialist division selling flight-only,” said Butcher.
“We would open that up to our agents and agents in PTS in the first instance and then roll it out [to other agents]. There is room for another specialist [consolidator] in the market and our model is about giving members the freedom and support to trade effectively.”
Butcher is already hoping the launch of its cruise division and tour operation will attract agents who want to specialise or create their own packages during its current recruitment campaign in time for the 2025 peak sales period.
MTG Cruise currently has seven members and offers agents an alternative to joining a cruise OTA or buying a franchise, he said.
He said: “We want to replicate our MTG Agents business model for cruise. Members will be able to create fly-cruise packages under our Atol and at the same time benefit from relationships we have with cruise lines and get Clia membership.
“When people join we support them to develop their own brand and business; they are not a homeworker for another company and it gives them the freedom in terms of how they market themselves. They can develop the business in the way they want to.”
MTG Holidays has already been rolled out to PTS members and internally but could be sold via other third-party agents in future. Its portfolio ranges from safaris and cruises to Indian Ocean, the US and Canada, the Caribbean and Australia.
But Butcher stressed the need for growth to be carefully managed so the infrastructure is in place to handle increased call volumes to its tour operation, for example.
“One of the things we want to avoid is a situation where we can’t answer the phones. At the moment, with our own member base and PTS, it’s manageable,” he added.
As part of its expansion the group has made two appointments, extending the remit of business development manager Ian Richardson to cover MTG Holidays as well as MTG Agents from this month, and employing Janice Abbott-Black, ex-Holiday Village, in a sales support role.
Butcher is the first to admit the group has grown “beyond expectations” – boosted by opportunities offered as a result of the Covid pandemic – and said the group’s expansion was not a numbers game.
“We purposefully set out not to be a recruitment machine. The whole point is to get agents who are the right fit for us and for them,” he said, noting the group has only lost four members to other consortia since launch five years ago.
He added: “We didn’t start out with an objective to grow to this size but there have been opportunities, some through Covid with people losing their jobs. That led us to a decision to open the door a little bit for people to remain in the industry and develop their own businesses. It’s grown from there.”
He attributed part of the group’s growth to its flexible sales model and restrictions on other consortia agents around the sales of dynamic packages.
He said: “The fact some of the big consortia don’t allow their members to dynamically package is one of the reasons why we have done well because we do allow our members to do that.
“I don’t see the point in every agent selling the same operator packages. If you can give agents a way to create something tailormade and different to inspire people to travel, then you will generate sales.”