NEWS
InteleTravel’s James Ferrara on stage with Clare Tobin (left), Olympic Holidays, and Lucy Huxley, Travel Weekly
InteleTravel boss blasts critics and ‘misinformation’
Lee Hayhurst
Te president of controversial homeworking company InteleTravel has branded criticism of the company as “misinformation” and “gossip”. Speaking at a Travel
Weekly Business Breakfast in his first UK public appearance, James Ferrara said backlash to InteleTravel being granted Abta membership in March was “full of assumption” that “smells of the past”. But Abta board member Alistair
50th anniversary and redesign launch. Referring to criticism of the
STORY TOP
way InteleTravel targets non- travel specialists on social media by promising the opportunity to earn the chance to holiday for free, Rowland said: “It’s not about commodity product, it’s about recruitment. When you blur the line between recruitment and commodity travel without the governance it makes a mockery of the travel
industry. It’s fundamentally wrong. “All homeworking agencies take
Rowland, retail boss at Midcounties Co-operative, said he had never seen the trade “more offended” than by the US firm’s arrival in the UK. Te rivals came face-to-face on a
panel to debate the Future of Travel Selling that marked Travel Weekly’s
travelweekly.co.uk
new agents, but we [Midcounties] train them for a year because that’s what they need to be robust. Tere is very litle evidence of that at InteleTravel.” Ferrara hit back, insisting
InteleTravel was not a network marketing company or a pyramid seller. “Tat’s a common misconception
about our business,” he said. “We do not do any kind of recruiting. Our events are all travel training events. Tey include top brands and trainers. “We have former high street agents
who tell us they never received the kind of training they do at InteleTravel. We never stop training.” Ferrara revealed that InteleTravel,
which has 40,000 US agents, had grown from 1,800 agents in the UK to 2,500 since March and that UK sales in April were higher than for the whole of 2018. Andy Washington, Culture Trip
senior vice-president of travel, said the key question about InteleTravel was “does the consumer like it?” “If they like it, that’s the important
thing,” he said. “Tere is room for us all. Te world has moved on and the
consumer has a bigger voice than ever.” › Business Breakfast report, page 10
GROUP TALKS
InteleTravel is in talks about joining a UK consortium. Boss James Ferrara said being in a consortium was more of a “business advantage issue” than a “badge”, like joining Abta. Asked which consortium, he said it was a “private conversation”, adding: “We’re starting from scratch, so it’s about supplier relationships, purchasing power and technology.” Midcounties’ Alistair Rowland said InteleTravel was “too big a legal risk” for any consortium. Ferrara called that “nonsense”, saying it had a strong record in the US of consortium membership.
16 MAY 2019
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PICTURE: Steve Dunlop
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