Steve Endacott has vowed to continue his fight to protect the interests of online travel agents, despite losing his right hand man.
Paul Evans, fellow co-founder of the Association of Travel Agents, has resigned from the group after moving his business, Lowcostholidays, to Spain.
According to Endacott, Evans resigned from the lobbying group with a simple message: "Sorry, solved the problem by moving to Spain. We are out".
Endacott said the "neat and highly legal move" by Evans has torn a "gaping loop-hole " in the UK regulatory framwork and is ironically one of the outcomes the ATA had predicted to regulators and has been lobbying to prevent.
"The combination of the impending reforms to the European Package Travel Regulations (PDT’s) and ever increasing regulatory costs of operating on the UK, compared to other European member states or so called "off shore" solutions outside of the EU, make such moves virtually inevitable," said Endacott in his latest blog.
The chief executive of On Holiday Group said his buddy’s move to Spain saved Lowcostholidays millions while the "much lighter regulatory touch" made the move all the more attractive.
"Personally, I regard Paul Evans and his Low Cost Holidays group as smart players, who were able to adjust their trading model to save millions, and have done so," said Endacott.
"However, abandoning the ATA cause is something I hope to persuade Paul was a premature and short-term decision that he should not have made. If not, some of the other ATA members may end up buying Paul a beer in Palma every Friday night come 2016!"
