Advantage Travel Partnership is offering members the chance to host Covid test dropboxes outside their agencies in a deal with provider Randox Health.
More than 30 members of the travel agent consortium have so far shown interest in the scheme which has been trialled with five members in recent weeks and comes as Advantage signs a partnership with C19 Testing, its third testing provider.
The move follows reports from holidaymakers of over-flowing dropboxes and too few locations as the numbers of consumers booking holidays picks up.
Leisure director Kelly Cookes said the move allowed agents to offer clients a convenient drop off point for their Randox PCR tests as well as increasing the potential number of consumers entering the agency or reading its window offers, rather than any specific earning opportunity.
She said: “Anyone can use the dropboxes but it is really convenient for members’ customers and people may also stop to look at their window offers. We had some members where the nearest drop off boxes were 40 miles away whereas now members can say the box is just outside the shop; it makes the experience more seamless.
“There is no liability for the box or its contents, which is secured to the exterior of the property and emptied and collected every day by 5pm.”
The consortium has had a partnership with Randox since April to provide discounted PCR tests to clients costing £43. It was approached by the testing provider, which was looking to increase the number of dropboxes nationwide.
Cookes said more members were getting in touch daily to have boxes put outside their stores across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
“I would expect we will get high numbers of agents wanting to host these boxes. It looks like testing is here to stay for a while and from a customer point of view agents can guarantee the samples will be collected every day from outside their shop and that clients will get the results within 12 hours,” she added.
This week Advantage started working with a third test provider. C19 will provide lateral flow tests, without a video appointment, for clients to do in resort within 72 hours of return back to the UK. These tests are offered at a discounted rate of £25 through Advantage members.
Advantage also offers lateral flow tests with video appointments via Qured for £36.