p10-11 Conf Dec4 2/12/09 20:48 Page 10
news
ttglive.com
Freedom Conference 2009
November 29-30 ■ Manchester
Members of the Freedom Travel Group met for
FUTURE TRAVEL.
their annual conference last weekend. Rupert
Homeworkers ‘to switch’
Murray reports from Manchester
FUTURE TRAVEL looks likely to become
dominated by its Personal Travel Advisors agents
when Teletext’s analogue service is switched off
Kiss Flights’ prices could
in January.
At present 66% of Future members are home-
workers who take calls generated by services
such as Teletext, whereas its personal travel
spark Co-op boss U-turn
advisors generate their own business from home.
But Co-operative Travel distribution director
Alistair Rowland admitted that some of those
who rely on calls were starting to struggle and
were likely to struggle more from January.
CO-OPERATIVE Travel Group managing director model that has failed twice and cost us money.” His solution is for many homeworkers to take
Mike Greenacre is set to make a U-turn on his But he accepted that Kiss offered cheaper on the more autonomous role of a personal
promise never to sell Kiss Flights. prices to some destinations than its competitors. travel advisor, actively seeking clients rather
Speaking at the group’s Freedom Travel Group “With the economic situation as it is, price is than waiting for clients to come to them.
conference, he said Co-op had examined ways of the most important factor for consumers and He envisages this reversing the group’s ratio
using Kiss, the charter carrier that emerged in with that in mind we have been trying to find a of personal travel advisors to homeworkers.
the wake of last year’s XL collapse, as a supplier. way to have Kiss as a supplier,” he said. Agents left as homeworkers taking calls would
Greenacre said in October last year that he “But we must ensure our business is as need to specialise in niche areas.
would never sell Kiss because of the expense of protected as it can be.” Jane Atkins, managing director of Future Travel
the collapse of XL. Kiss directors had worked for At last year’s Freedom conference, members and Freedom Travel Group, agreed with Rowland.
XL before it went bust in September 2008. expressed concerns that Greenacre’s stance She said: “If the calls coming in deteriorate sig-
But when asked about Kiss at this weekend’s could be detrimental to their businesses if it nificantly it does make sense for some of those
Freedom conference in Manchester, Greenacre restricted access to flights. agents to move to the personal travel advisor
told consortia members to “watch this space”. Greenacre then stood by his decision and said model to generate business for themselves.”
Greenacre said his position had not changed the group had to be careful about working with
and added: “The people who run it have a ventures that evolved out of collapsed firms.
TOUR OPERATION.
Tough start for tour arm
CO-OPERATIVE Travel boss Mike Greenacre told
Freedom delegates that the group could not have
picked a worse time to launch its tour operation
arm Co-operative Travel Holidays.
He was referring to the economic backdrop,
but holiday division head of product Ruth Hilton
said the operator had had a reasonable start.
She said the key to its success was focusing on
price, families and offering more three-star all-
inclusive product to places like Turkey and Egypt.
The operator’s second-edition brochure is due
to come out later this month and Greenacre told
members the group faced a steep learning curve
but that many lessons had been learned from the
first brochure and that these had been addressed
Freedom to talk: Alistair Rowland (left), Mike Greenacre and Jane Atkins on stage in Manchester in the second programme.
10 04.12.2009
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64