‘We’re not afraid of TUI’s plan for global dominance’, says Advantage boss
Independent agents mustn’t be cowed by this week’s announcement from TUI that it intends to create a single global ‘power’ brand that will allow it to ‘own’ destinations, said Advantage managing director Julia Lo Bue-Said.
She admitted TUI’s creeping dominance of the travel industry was a threat, but she insisted it was also ‘an opportunity’.
"We work with TUI and we are not na-¯ve about their plans for global dominance, but it is a big market place, our members’ business has not declined, our overall volumes are not down, there is a certain demographic that we can attract and we need to continue to innovate to do that, such as looking at specialist areas like cruise."
TUI will continue to work with Advantage members, she said, because the percentage of business they contributed was not big enough to warrant TUI trying to squeeze them out of the market. "No-one is na-¯ve to what their direction is, so we have to look at what we can do to make sure we can work with them in a different manner."
TUI has built its recent success by focusing on providing unique holidays and Bue-Said said Advantage could give members access to content not available elsewhere in the UK. "There are always opportunities everywhere, unless you fail to diversify, unless you keep on selling the same thing," she added.
Advantage agents sold £1.5 billion of holidays last year, said Bue-Said. "Our leisure business has not declined," she said, "our market has opened up, more people are travelling, it is just a question of finding your way into that market, which is why our members are mostly specialists."
Advantage claims its commercial terms with suppliers are at least 1% better than rival organisations and it saves it 350 members an average of £24,000 a year.
Over 440 delegates attended this year’s annual conference, hosted by Mark Warner at its all-inclusive resort in Bodrum.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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