CONFERENCE Vertical Travel Group Conference in Torremolinos. Samantha Mayling reports T


Vertical Travel to phase out brands in legal revamp 250


he Vertical Travel Group is to merge the legal entities of its homeworking brands to


make it clearer to suppliers how much business the company does. Peter Healey, group chief


executive, said: “We have a strategic plan to merge all of our divisions into one Vertical Travel Group brand while continuing to allow all of our agents to use their own personal or corporate branding.” As part of the overhaul, two


brands – Your Holiday Booking and Holiday Elite – will be phased out, while brands including Luxury Worldwide, Instant Holidays and Instant Breaks will remain online. Healey added: “We are merging


the legal entities so that the suppliers can see who we are and can add up the sales from each division. “We are relaunching that as


Peter Healey


Group’s target number of homeworkers by April, up from 220 currently


over a much longer period of time.” Healey made the announcement


Vertical Travel Group, rather than just the individual businesses. “A lot of the homeworkers trade


with their own personal identities, so it doesn’t make a lot of difference to them, but it does make a difference to our relationship with suppliers. Some of the brands will fade away. “We are doing quite a lot with


Disney, but that is split across all our Abta numbers; in future, it will become easier for the suppliers. “The legal changes will happen


before the year-end in April 2025. The brand changes will phase out


during the group’s conference in Torremolinos in Spain last week. About 100 delegates attended,


including 80 agents, along with head office staff and suppliers such as Jet2holidays and Gold Medal. Healey anticipates the group’s


total of about 220 homeworkers will increase to 250 by next April. Sales this year were reported to


be about 17% up on last year, with Healey noting that August was weak but September was very strong. “Part of the growth is coming from new homeworkers but a lot


is from established homeworkers getting back in the swing,” he said. Healey echoed the sentiments of


agents at a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast last week in reference to low deposits driving cancellation rates. “We have an 8% cancellation rate,


which is a bit irritating,” he said. “It’s generally driven by the low deposits that the big operators are offering.” Vertical’s 2025 Conference will


be held at the Anemos Luxury Grand


Resort, Crete, on April 27-30. O Vertical Travel Group has launched a new division, AtTravelTravel.com, specialising in ‘dine and stay’ holidays and motorhome breaks.


Group plans to set up cruise division by January


Peter Healey revealed the group plans to launch a cruise division by January to take advantage of growth, especially in the ocean cruise sector. He said the consortium would work


with its top cruise sellers to “increase the prosperity of the group as a whole”. “Currently, about 17%-18% of our


turnover is cruise – it tends to be a handful of people doing a lot of bookings – but we should be doing twice that,” he said. “We need to dig in deeper to the ocean


cruise market, that is a priority.” He said the group envisages “strong


growth” in ocean cruising but noted that river cruising had not recovered since the Covid-19 pandemic with the same “vibrancy”. “We will have a head office team


supporting cruise; we are looking at how to integrate that process,” he said. “We do a lot of business with MSC


Cruises because we do a lot of UK departures and we’ve seen other cruise lines putting more ships into the UK. “There is investment and a desire for growth


in the supplier end of the market, so there’s a lot of opportunity for us to do more business.”


Delegates at the trade fair


16


17 OCTOBER 2024


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Steve Dunlop


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