The boss of InteleTravel has insisted the agency’s acquisition of Major Travel is a “win” for everyone in the UK trade.
The homeworking agency announced on Wednesday (May 22) that it has taken a majority stake in the north London-based long-haul specialist with plans to make it the UK’s leading tailor-made long-haul B2B operator.
“I don’t look at this as a problem for our partners. I look at it as a challenge and as an opportunity,” said Ferrara, co-founder and president of InteleTravel, on a Travel Weekly webcast.
“This deal is going to make InteleTravel stronger, which means more opportunities for everyone: our agents, our partners and our customers.”
Asked about possible concerns from other suppliers, he said: “A move like this is not to the exclusion of our other supplier partners; the pot is big enough for everyone.
“It might cause you to heat up your seat a little bit and think about the competition.
“InteleTravel’s agency performance [turnover] is growing at between 50% and 100%. annually. There is plenty of business.
“This past month, we’re looking at over 100% growth year over year.”
He added: “We do win, everyone wins; [that] is the point with this deal with Major.
“All advisors in the UK who are or can be customers of Major win, all InteleTravel agents win, both companies win, and the industry wins.”
Commenting on the benefits for InteleTravel, he said: “There is a strategy at Inteletravel to make InteleTravel into something new and different. Growth is not something we’re chasing, it’s chasing us.
“We are a travel distributor, but we’ve never owned product.
“Now we have the ability to have some ownership in product, which gives us the opportunity to be more responsive to our 20,000 independent contractors in the UK and Ireland.
“It gives me the opportunity to double-dip because now I’m earning on the distribution, like we normally do, but I’m also earning on the product.”
He added: “At the investment level, there is the benefit of diversifying our business and creating new profit centres.
“We now have two profit sources; that makes tremendous sense.”
He said the agency’s 20,000 agents in UK and Ireland will benefit from having Major Travel integrated into its inhouse booking system and giving them more options for booking long-haul tailor-made packages.
“We have more and more agents selling more and more,” he told the webcast.
“We have convinced many people – who thought they were doing this as plan B in their lives – that is has become Plan A, as the result of our training, our events, our communications, and all the management from Tricia [Handley-Hughes, UK and Ireland managing director] and her team, and our ambassadors training out in the field.
“[InteleTravel agents] now have Major and then, beyond Major, they have the rest of our portfolio. I’m in the business of options, providing really valuable juicy options.”
He insisted criticism of InteleTravel when it entered the UK market six years ago is “well behind us” and concluded: “This Major deal, if someone needs any more proof, is more proof that we are simply just growing.
“We’re making the market bigger for everyone here. We have become the contributor to the UK travel marketplace that I promised we would become.”