Travel News Nov/Dec 2022 BIG BUSINESS TRAVEL
BY KIRSTY JOHNSTON
kirsty@nitravelnews.com
TRAVEL is big business. Every year people travel to new and exotic locations. But it can get expensive. Discounted prices and holiday packages can make exotic locations affordable to the average person. InteteTravel is the online travel agency that allows homeworkers to earn money and get discounts for their own travel?
NI Travel News attended the recent InteleTravel Conference in Belfast and had the opportunity to sit down with InteleTravel Co- Founder and President James Ferrara. “InteleTravel came about when the only way to become a travel agent was to open your own agency or work for one,” says James who co- founded IntelTravel in 1992.
InteleTravel operates as a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company. In this way the company gives the average person the opportunity to be a travel agent from the comfort of their own home. No requirements necessary. The company dates back to 1991 when
James Ferrara’s venture‑capital firm bought a Californian home-working travel agency. InteleTravel now operates in all 50 US states, Mexico and 10 Caribbean countries – with 30,000 agents on its books globally. “InteleTravel works like many other online travel websites and agencies,” says James. “We provide discounted prices on various aspects of
travel like hotels and airfares as well as exclusive packages that many holidaymakers are looking for. For anyone who is passionate about travel, this is an ideal opportunity. We don’t require you to have any qualifications, you aren’t required to take any test or shell out massive amounts of money. This really is a win-win situation for homeworkers. The possibilities are unlimited.” InteleTravel was granted ABTA membership in 2019, meaning they are fully bonded as a retail travel agent in the UK. However, this news was not widely welcomed in the travel industry. “We haven’t received the warmest welcome from the traditional travel agents,” says James. “I think that it’s a bit of fear, a bit of resistance to change, and a bit of protectionism. But we say there is plenty of business for everyone. We haven’t commented a lot on that at all along the way. The cost to us for that has been to allow people to imagine our story without us being able to tell it.”
“We had some people call us a ‘pyramid scheme’ and say we are ‘not a real travel agency’, but the truth is we are, and we are giving people the opportunity to build a great home working business that is fully flexible around their lifestyle. “When we started it was a fairly new concept
but we had our lawyers look into it and its totally legal – so we invested in it. We were pioneers. We made mistakes, of course, but we learnt from them and built on that.”
“We respect the process,” he says. “You don’t last 28 years if you are disrespectful of regulations. “It was difficult at first, of course, and we had to jump through some hoops and work some things out. ABTA requested that our agents complete in-house training modules, so we
We take a totally hands- off approach and don’t generate any leads for our agents. It’s all up to them. Some people choose to sell to their local community or to their parent friends in their kids school groups while others only sell to family and friends.”
created them for things like GDPR, package travel regulations, ATOL, customer service and how to deal with complaints. More than 90% of our UK agents have now completed this training.
“For anyone looking to create a business that
works for them, InteleTravel offers that. We only charge a £142 sign-up fee and a £32 monthly charge. We keep costs extremely low,” he says. “ All our agents keep 70% of the commission paid by suppliers, but this can rise to 80% if they hit sales targets. A great point is that we also have no obligatory targets. Agents can sell as little or as much as they want and leave at any time with no fees. We are all about flexibility and help you do what works best for you.” I’ve seen other companies charge thousands in set-up fees, but this just isn’t the way we choose to operate. The monthly fees do offset our costs but it’s a fraction of what we make in
commission.” “All our homeworkers have complete control
over their own sales. We take a totally hands‑off approach and don’t generate any leads for our agents. It’s all up to them. Some people choose to sell to their local community or to their parent friends in their kids school groups while others only sell to family and friends. We have some agents who are doing so well that they have actually gone ahead and opened their own storefront.”
And James says they won’t be stopping with the UK.
“The UK was initially meant to be a foot- in-the-door to Europe. However, then Brexit happened. So now we have to kind of start again. We will be moving into Ireland and then onto the rest of Europe. We plan to keep on growing and to keep on offering opportunities for flexible working to as many people as we can.”
“All our homeworkers have complete control over their own sales.
TRAVEL TRADE UPDATES 47
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 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
