Barrhead Travel has rejoined the Advantage Travel Partnership after seven years as a member of The Travel Network Group.
Barrhead was the largest retail member of TTNG when it joined in 2015 and the second-largest member in turnover terms, sitting within its Worldchoice division.
The Scottish agency group has switched its consortium membership as part of parent Internova Travel Group’s renewal of its membership of Advantage this summer and its aim of aligning all its brands in one consortium.
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Barrhead originally left Advantage in 2013 to form a joint venture buying group with Midcounties Co-operative, but that was disbanded after about a year.
Internova’s Global Travel Collection UK and Altour brands were both already using Advantage’s services. But as part of the group’s renewal, membership has been extended to cover all four of its business units, adding Barrhead Travel, which includes Brilliant Travel, and Your Event Solutions.
Internova said all suppliers and partners had been informed of the change. A spokeswoman for the group said: “We’re pleased to confirm the renewal of our membership with Advantage Travel Partnership. The deal incorporates all four of our UK business units as part of our commitment to share synergies and efficiencies across the group.
“Each business unit will utilise the membership differently, depending on their commercial requirements.”
Advantage chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes welcomed the group’s expanded membership.
She said: “We have enjoyed a strong and mutually beneficial partnership with individual businesses within Internova Travel Group for many years and are pleased that we now have its entire group of UK companies as part of our ever expanding membership.
“With our laser-focus approach on delivering the highest levels of membership support, we look forward to supporting all parts of their group going forward.”
TTNG said Barrhead stopped its Worldchoice membership at the end of July to align with its parent company’s strategy. Chief executive Gary Lewis said: “We would like to thank Barrhead Travel for their time as a member of our association.”