news conference report Global Travel Group Conference March 7-8■ Leicester Marriott Hotel ■ Leicestershire
Commission rates, booking trends and the independent sector’s future were the major topics at this week’s Global Travel Group Conference. Rob Gill reports from Leicester
‘We’ll work with big two’
GLOBAL TRAVEL Group is working more closely with Thomas Cook after the operator increased commission rates to the consortium’s members. Global managing director Dave Clayton said
Cook was paying “slightly higher commissions” representing “a better deal than 12 months ago”. “Cook has a broad range of products and openly wants support from independent agents,” Clayton said. “It wants to put investment back into us – that’s why it has attended this year’s conference. Cook didn’t attend last year, but is now showing it values our business – which it may have undervalued in the past.” The comments were in stark contrast to those made at last year’s Global conference, when independent agents were urged to avoid opera- tors owned by rival agencies. This week Clayton said it would be “foolish”
not to work with the big two of Cook and Tui Travel because they were “such massive players”. But he added that members would not be able
to create a long-term sustainable business if they relied too heavily on the big two. “You can’t put all your eggs in one basket. We’ll work with the big two but not proactively,” he said. Clayton added that his main focus for the next
year was helping Global members whose busi- nesses were struggling. “While many members are seeing double or triple-digit growth, there are a number who are struggling,” he said. “We will look at what we can do to support them.”
He said Global would look at more regional
events, such as meetings and dinners, as well as helping members promote their websites and do deals with price comparison websites.
Let him entertain you: A Robbie Williams tribute act performed for delegates at the Global conference
SUMMER SALES.
Members beating market average
GLOBAL TRAVEL Group agents are outperforming the market for summer 2011 sales according to the group’s managing director, Dave Clayton. Clayton said sales for summer 2011 through
group members were up 5% for revenue while the overall market was seeing an increase of 3%. He admitted that winter 2010-11 was “a bit of
Dave Clayton: Thomas Cook is now showing that it values our business – which it may have undervalued in the past REGIONAL AIRPORTS. Bristol, East Midlands and Newcastle on Cosmos radar
COSMOS HOLIDAYS is to look at basing aircraft at several regional UK airports for summer 2012. Managing director Hugh Morgan said the oper- ator was considering basing Monarch aircraft at Bristol, East Midlands and Newcastle for next year and a final decision would be made “very soon”. “It’s a big investment but you have to do it properly by putting aircraft into a base,” he said.
12 11.03.2011
“You can’t utilise it by using foreign carriers and asking everybody in the catchment area to support it. “When we were working with The Co-operative
Travel, one of the criticisms of us was that we did not have enough regional flying. “I think we will be doing a lot more regional flying next year.”
a struggle” with sales down by 1% year-on-year, although that was “in line with the overall market”. Clayton added that the group had performed well in 2010 despite the ash cloud crisis, strikes, high-profile company failures and tax increases. He said Global members saw a 4% increase in passenger numbers last year and a 10% increase in revenue during 2010 compared with 2009. “It’s a fantastic achievement in tough trading times – though unfortunately not all our agents were in growth,” he said. “Our aim is to put the tools in place to make
sure all our agents can see growth this year.” Clayton urged agents to concentrate on selling
Global’s preferred partners such as sister brand Travel 2, which has seen sales growth through Global members of 135% in the past year, while bookings through members of Global’s Indepen- dent Options group grew by 27%.
ttglive.com
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