More Mayo with that please!

House of Travel continues to progress its entry into Australia with former HWT chief Barry Mayo firmly at the helm, saying that their plans to enter into Australia have been impacted by a higher than expected level of interest, adding that they need to ensure adequate time is allocated to the assessment of all opportunities and that they will not be making any announcement on how and when entry will occur until their evaluation is complete.

He said, “It is more likely we will opt to proceed covertly, rather than overtly, for another three to six months, as we consider the options, agreeing that that one of the benefits of being a private company, as Flight Centre has recently indicated when announcing its share buy-back plan, is that you only need to make announcements at times that are commercially appropriate.”

“When a company is not publicly listed there is no obligation to keep the market fully informed on matters that might have a material impact on the value of your shares or the P&L performance and the like.”

Industry response to House of Travel’s initial announcement of its intention to assess opportunities for entry into the Australian market has not only been very encouraging but much more extensive and broad based than had been anticipated.

While Mayo couldn’t be drawn on specifics he did say responses covered a broad spectrum of the industry.

“We are currently in advanced discussions with a number of parties regarding the possibilities of acquisitions and partnerships we need more time to evaluate all prospects than originally foreseen.”

Mayo said House of Travel was not in a position to disclose the likely business model they would use in Australia until they had completed their evaluations, adding “We are in the fortunate position to be starting with a clean slate in Australia so we want to make sure we have the right model not just for the Australian market as it is today but also in preparation for the changes we foresee occurring in the future.”

He also said, “I would encourage travel agency owners, managers and experienced senior travel consultants, who want greater certainty or more commitment in growing the return on their investment or in the case of managers and consultants improved career opportunities and remuneration, to contact me on [email protected]

House of Travel is the most recognised travel agency brand in New Zealand with a 27% share of New Zealand’s total travel market. It is a vertically integrated operation with 90 outlets throughout New Zealand supporting its in-house tour wholesaling and ticket centre activities as well as undertaking a strong commitment to each of its preferred supplier partners.

House of Travel is in all channels of distribution, with its multi-award winning website and online booking engine rated by Hitwise as the number one travel agency site in the country, two years in a row.  In addition to its retail leisure business, House of Travel has a strong corporate travel presence through Orbit Corporate Travel, with total group turnover well in excess of $700 million.

The average turnover for House of Travel’s retail outlets is three times the New Zealand industry average (which is not dissimilar to Australia’s industry average) with, in addition to the retail outlets, annual website sales of $40 million and doubling every six months.

The company operates a transparent business plan in partnership with its owner-operator retail outlets which outlines the company’s responsibilities and the owner-operators’ responsibilities so that there is operational clarity and a clear understanding of all commercial arrangements.

Online development of www.houseoftravel.co.nz has been all about remaining relevant to House of Travel’s customers and securing the customer’s loyalty to the House of Travel brand and retaining and building supplier sales volumes.

In developing www.houseoftravel.co.nz House of Travel was aware that in many cases when traditional travel agencies provided online booking options they were jeopardising their bricks-and-mortar business. Consequently House of Travel made provision through in-house developed technology for customers booking on the House of Travel website to assign themselves to an outlet. That outlet then assumes responsibility to look after that customer and initiates follow-up contact.

Report by The Mole