Australian Travel Agents Cooperative forms strategic partnership with Concorde International Travel

The Australian Travel Agents Cooperative (ATAC), a group of 80 independent agents, announced today a strategic partnership with Concorde International Travel, effective from 1 July, 2005.

Under the terms of the agreement, ATAC has realigned the outsourcing of its management and product acquisition, selecting the Concorde Independent Agents Group (CIAG), but has retained its own membership development and communication programme.

“Independent travel agents play an important role in the Australian travel industry,” said ATAC Chairperson Ms Michelle Emerton. “But in order to remain competitive against larger chains, independent agents need to increase their buying leverage, without losing their identities and with a real chance of improving their incomes.

“CIAG is a buying group for non-aligned agents such as our members, providing collective purchasing power without obliging participating agents to surrender or diminish their independence,” said Ms Emerton.

“Our new arrangement with CIAG enables our members to access a large selection of travel product at very competitive prices from a wide range of suppliers, while continuing to trade in their own names, and allows them to choose the product which best suits the needs of customers.”

ATAC has had a similar arrangement with Jetset Travelworld for the past three years, but believes the two groups have increasingly divergent strategies.

“The ATAC board has now decided unanimously that the interests of its 80 unbranded member agents in Victoria, NSW and Queensland are best served by entering a new strategic alliance, in which the partners’ objectives are more closely aligned,” said Ms Emerton.

“In our view, CIAG is the partner which best recognises the importance of independent travel retailers, and which can deliver to our members both the best product and management support and the best opportunity to increase their bottom line profits.”

Ms Emerton said the commercial arrangements negotiated by ATAC would increase both member and group benefits, and reduce their costs while maintaining a truly competitive position and financial transparency.

The General Manager of Concorde International Travel, Mr Russell Carstensen, and the General Manager of CIAG, Mr Peter Watson, were both closely involved in the discussions with ATAC.

“We are delighted with the decision by ATAC, which takes to 800 the number of unbranded travel agencies now working with CIAG,” said Mr Watson.

“The growth of CIAG reflects the growing presence and importance of independent travel agencies in the Australian community,” he said. “It also reflects the success we have had in delivering affordable and competitive product to unaligned agents, enabling them to compete more effectively with agents from larger branded chains without losing their own unique business identities.

“We are committed to delivering added value to the CIAG network of agencies in 2005 and beyond, without increasing the costs of our partner agents, or adding to the administrative burdens of doing business,” said Mr Watson.

“We deliver all of the buying benefits of a branded agency chain, without the disadvantages of inflexible product range or remote head office thinking, and we provide member agents with a genuine industry voice, without compromising their independence.”