The new interim chief executive of The Travel Corporation’s TTC Tour Brands division has promised flexible flying will be available to book with its tours by the new year, with fully inclusive tour packages bookable online later in 2025.
Melissa DaSilva was most recently president of TTC Tour Brands North America and will succeed Gavin Tollman when he leaves the business on completion of the sale of TTC to private equity firm Apollo Funds, which was expected this week.
She told Travel Weekly she saw “a huge opportunity” for the UK market but said: “We need to get our ducks in a row. We need to be able to offer land and air packages combined.”
More: TTC Tour Brands outlines ambitions for trade business
TTC Tour Brands to take 30 agents on ‘epic’ fam in Austrian Alps
TTC Tour Brands hosts 30 agents on London day out
DaSilva said EMEA managing director Kelly Jackson and her team had done an “excellent job of forging relationships with trade partners” but added not having flights included in packages was “the biggest barrier to sale”.
“Most [trade partners] gave up their own Atol licences, which had enabled them to dynamically package, during Covid. They don’t want to sell us unpackaged,” she said.
DaSilva said the company was planning to introduce a flexible air option – enabling agents to ring the call centre to book flights – in time for the peaks selling season.
It will initially be available for Trafalgar before being extended to sister touring brands Costsaver, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold and Contiki.
DaSilva said the company would pilot the new offering with a key retail partner and a consortium in the coming weeks.
But she acknowledged the flexible air solution was just a stepping stone to offering fully inclusive packages that are bookable online, and said the technology was being worked on to make it possible.
“Offering flexible air is a sticking plaster and is not going to change anything overnight until we have the full shebang – then it should make a real difference,” she said.
DaSilva said her other priority was to ensure TTC Tour Brands is “the best partner to travel agents” and would be looking at best practices in its North America and Oceania markets to bring successful initiatives to the UK and Europe.
“The whole aim is to make ourselves easier to deal with and so we will be sharing the things that work and bringing them to other regions,”
she added.