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Advantage to get tough with business members
Advantage Travel Centres is to start demanding a greater level of support from its business agents for preferred suppliers.
Commercial development manager Ken McLeod said if sales and marketing agreements are to survive, members must produce results.
Speaking at the Advantage business travel conference in Munich, McLeod said: “We can’t mandate but we need to demand more of our members if we are to demand more from our suppliers. And believe me, we will be demanding more of our suppliers.
“We cannot afford to be a club and we are no longer just an association. But if you want to be par of team you have to play the game.”
His comments follow similar remarks from Advantage managing director John McEwan who vowed to instil a greater level of sales discipline among members following the launch of Triton Travel Group, the new super-consortium formed by Advantage, Global and Worldchoice.
Lufthansa UK and Ireland business sales manager Andrew Bunn said agents need to back its suppliers otherwise the negotiated deals “are not worth the paper they are written on.”
Guild of Travel Management Companies general manager John Williams suggested that the end of sales agreements could benefit the customer.
“I am playing devil’s advocate but if there were no sales and marketing agreements in place, does that mean we could go back to offering the customer what they want and not what is advantageous to sell?”
*See TravelMole for further Advantage business travel conference reports.
Report by Steve Jones
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