NEWS FREEDOM AND CO-OPERATIVE PTA JOINT CONFERENCE 2015
Freedom Travel Group and The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors hosted over 250 members and suppliers at their annual conference. Juliet Dennis reports from the Cotswolds
Kelly Cookes
Recruitment drive boosts groups’ membership by 35
The Freedom Travel Group and The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors (CPTA) will have recruited 35 members this year by the end of this month.
Freedom will then have 142 members and CPTA 131 members, said Kelly Cookes, head of both groups, which are part of Thomas Cook Group. Revealing the figures at
Freedom and CPTA’s annual joint conference, she said the appointment of a dedicated recruitment manager and launch of a campaign this summer had helped boost membership. “It’s about having a focus on
recruitment,” added Cookes. “We were getting enquiries before, but it was having the time to sit down with these businesses. We needed someone to go through their business plans. We now sit down with them [new members] face to face for an interview.” Efforts to recruit more members
will continue across both groups next year, but there are no set targets. Cookes said: “It’s not a numbers game.”
“We now sit down with new members face to face for an interview”
The decision by Vertical Group’s
homeworking agency Your Holiday Booking to leave Freedom this autumn was for reasons specific to its business, and was “not because of a falling out”, she said. “Its departure will not have any impact on the group,” she added. “It
is the only business to have left [this year] and it was on good terms.” Cookes told delegates that more
face-to-face training was planned to support members, while a refresh of the website had helped to make life easier for agents. She pledged: “We are going to continue to invest in [technology] systems. We have launched ‘Manage My Booking’, so customers can pay online. More
[developments] will be going live.” › Caught on Camera, page 68
Freedom to stage first fam trip next year
Top-selling Freedom Travel Group agents are to be invited on a VIP trip for the first time in 2016. The group’s 17 highest sellers will be taken on a fam to a yet-to-be-announced destination in the autumn. The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors’ 17 top-selling
homeworkers are already taken on an annual fam trip. This year, they went to Barbados. In 2016, they will visit Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, where they will stay at the Hilton Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort. The trip will include excursions and hotel visits, as well as a half-day business update from sponsors and the tourist board. Next year’s Freedom/CPTA conference will be held at Club Med’s Opio en Provence resort, near Cannes. › Readers’ Lives, page 38
New magazines to provide support in January peaks
Peak-season consumer and trade magazines are being created for The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors and Freedom Travel Group agents to support them in the busy turn-of-year sales period. Each homeworker and
agency will receive 50 copies of the 32-page Travel The World consumer magazine this month, featuring supplier deals available through members, to distribute to clients. Members will also receive
their own trade version of the magazine, called Peaks Matter, featuring similar information on deals available during the peaks period, as well as trade competitions and incentives. Kelly Cookes, head of CPTA
and Freedom, said: “During the peak period we get great support from suppliers, but it can be hard to keep up with when you are busy. This gives members the tools ahead of the game, so they can swot up before Christmas.” Cookes revealed that the
groups’ sales for the year to September 30 were 67% above target.
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travelweekly.co.uk 10 December 2015
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