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McEwan claims Triton has benefitted agents
Triton director John McEwan has defended the performance of the super consortium and claimed it had improved terms for members in the vast majority of cases since it was formed seven months ago.
McEwan said he was delighted with the response from suppliers to the new grouping, which consists of Advantage, Worldchoice and Global Travel Group members.
“We’ve been through the process of renegotiation and in the vast majority of cases we’ve maintained or enhanced revenue for our agents,” he said.
However, Triton will not kick out agents which refuse to get behind preferred suppliers.
When the consortium was formed last year, Worldchoice managing director Colin Heal claimed they would get tough on agents which didn’t toe the line, but it now appears that their stance has changed.
‘We won’t ever kick people out, that’s not what it’s about’, said Global Travel Group managing director Andrew Botterill. “But it’s true that you can’t have your cake and eat it. Members need to show discipline.”
Heal added that the consortium decided it preferred more of a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to encouraging support of suppliers and Global founder George Begg said it was important to educate members about the benefits of pulling together.
“It’s not appropriate to kick an agent out,” said Begg. “There are stages you go through. The first one is educational, explaining to an agent that it is in their interests to support preferred suppliers, you then find out why they are not doing that and sort out the problem.”
McEwan and Heal said the consortium had taken decisive action against Thomson and First Choice, which has dramatically cut commissions to agents.
“In Worldchoice shops, Thomson and First Choice were in the top three companies sold and now neither are in the top 20,” said Heal. “Really there has been a negligible impact on our business because of that”.
Report by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)
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