InteleTravel president James Ferrara has outlined ambitions for the company to be among the top 20 biggest Atol holders by the end of next year.
The business, which acquired a majority stake in tour operator Major Travel earlier this year, is close to acquiring a UK-based technology provider, Ferrara said, with other acquisitions also sought.
He told Travel Weekly the ultimate aim was to give agents more product to sell, adding: “It’s not some shopping spree or opportunistic acquisitions. It’s a deliberate strategy that benefits our advisors.”
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He said the opportunities would include “investments similar to [that in] Major Travel” and would involve geographic expansion.
“The next three years is about making us bigger, increasing our purchasing power, gaining more technology solutions, more specialised training and more new markets we can offer to our agents,” he said. “It’s more things for them to sell – that’s really what’s driving everything.”
He added: “I would like to see us in the top 20 Atol list – we could be on that list.”
Asked for a timescale, he said: “We could be on it by the end of next year.”
The largest Atol holder is currently Jet2holidays, which has a licence for 7,043,718 passengers, with the top 20 being completed by Emirates Holidays (UK) Ltd and its figure of 109,419 passengers.
Major Travel is the 121st largest Atol holder, with authorisation for 10,859 passengers, while InteleTravel itself is absent from the top 250 with its licence for 501 passengers.
It first gained an Atol in 2021 with authorisation to carry 5,310 passengers.