Travel Bulletin 2017

ulletinbriefing
Industry
Insight by...
David Moon, head of business development at Advantage, looks at the changing role
of the consortium...
I’M NOT quite sure what happened to the hottest
summer for 40 years that we were promised but I do
know we seem to have moved very swiftly into Autumn
(where has the year gone?) and it won’t be long before we
are preparing for peaks!
When I first joined Advantage, much of what we
discussed with potential new members involved the
commercial deals we had in place with our various
supplier partners and how these could help a business.
The commercial arrangements for any consortium are
crucial in order to demonstrate a return on investment
for membership fees (it’s the number one reason why our
members are part of Advantage).
However, so much has changed and agents are looking
for so much more from a consortium than just
commercial terms. Consortia have had to adapt to the
increasing pressures being placed on their travel agent
members, to help ensure that their members can thrive.
This has led to an explosion in the different types of
products and services being offered.
For example, looking at the marketing we used to offer
compared to what we offer now; ten years ago, we
offered point of sale material, which we still do today and
is very important to our retail members. However, we
have had to deliver new schemes to support our
members’ marketing endeavours. We now manage more
sophisticated direct marketing campaigns on our
members’ behalf, which deliver good quality marketing at
the right time of year to our members’ customers,
inspiring them to book with our members.
Increasingly the role of the consortium is to take away
some of the pain points of running a travel agency
business and marketing is a good way of demonstrating
how a consortium can help a travel agency business.
In some instances, agents want more pain to be
taken away!
In 2009 we set up Advantage Managed Services (AMS)
a scheme which provides agents with licensing (ABTA,
ATOL, IATA), back office systems and merchant services
and whereby we make supplier payments on behalf of
our members.
So, whilst this scheme has been around for some time,
this is a major area of growth for Advantage as a
business. What is really encouraging is the number of
new start-ups which have joined the scheme over the last
four years and seeing how those businesses have
flourished. With increasing regulation, I can fully
understand why an agent would want the comfort of
operating under a managed service scheme. Again, a
practical demonstration of how a consortium can add
value to an agencies business.
As we look ahead over the next 12 months, agents
face a number of key changes with the introduction of
the new Payment Services Directive, General Data
Protection Regulation and of course changes to the
Package Travel Regulations. All areas where we have
and will be offering help and guidance to members to
help support their business.
From a general support point of view, we have
upped the amount of training available to members on
a wide range of topics from social media, sales,
through to HR and business improvement workshops.
What’s encouraging for agents is that there is a big
support network out there to help your
business. Make sure you are making the most of
your consortium.
14
September 15 2017
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