What next for Travel 2 and Gold Medal?
Sophie GriffithsIt’s the question that has been on everyone’s lips since dnata announced it was acquiring Travel 2 – seven months after buying its rival Gold Medal. But Andy Freeth – dnata Travel UK’s managing director for B2B – insists a merger is still a long way off. He tells Sophie Griffiths why.
Is it something that we look at? Yes,” says Andy Freeth, and I can sense the smile in his voice. Because of course, an interview with the managing director of Gold Medal and Travel 2 would not be complete without quizzing him on whether the two brands are ever likely to merge.
We are speaking following a Gold Medal “Access all Areas” training day at the operator’s headquarters in Preston, which Freeth explains as “an opportunity to strengthen the relationships we have with agents”.
“It’s so we aren’t just a name and number to agents; they now know who is at the end of the phone.
“Agents wander round the office, and meet certain people. We talk them through every department. We think it’s good for them to see how we operate.”
Caribbean connection
The day was held as the group announced its first joint Gold Medal and Travel 2 fam, which will see 26 agents travelling to the Caribbean, with the island destinations only revealed at the airport. The announcement followed the decision last October to restructure both sales teams, enabling them to work jointly across both Gold Medal and Travel 2.
“We had a period of time – around 9 to 12 months – of getting the team to work more closely together and managing the relationships [with agents] as one key person.
“It’s taken a bit of time,” Freeth admits. “We also needed time for the team to get to know the key strengths of the brand, and the key differences. From a product perspective, the brands have similarities, but they also have very different ways of operating with agents and cooperating with customers.”
He insists though that not all future fams will be mutual ventures. “I’m not sure if all our fams will be joint, as [it depends on] the tourism authorities we’re working with. We’ve no plans to do all of them combined.”
That a fam is being run jointly at all, however, could be seen by some as the precursor to an overall merger of the two brands. Which brings us back to the question – should we expect such a union between Gold Medal and Travel 2 any time soon?
“There’s no decision to create a brand,” Freeth insists. “Is it something that we look at? Yes. But there are too many nuances and risks. If we do consider it,” he adds, “it will be carefully thought out and in consultation with our travel partners, airlines and clients.”
Loyalty issues
The loyalty to each brand felt by agents – as well as the staff themselves – is also an issue to consider, Freeth says. “Quite often there’s more loyalty to one brand than the other for various reasons, [and we would need to assess] what the decision-making process is of choosing one brand over another.
“There are people that are very loyal to the brands within each business as well. More than 150 people at Gold Medal have been there for 10 years and we recently celebrated one employee who had been there 30 years.
“It may be that we end up with the brand as an evolution,” he concedes. “To grow and develop the products and [then] have one overarching brand. We’re nowhere near making that decision though,” Freeth insists emphatically. “And there is no pressure from dnata. They are very happy with our B2B performance.”
Instead, Freeth says the group is more focused on “looking at lots of key projects over the next year or so, before we would even consider that”.
As further proof of how far Gold Medal and Travel 2 are from merging, Freeth adds: “We also still have two IT systems – if we were to consider the one brand, we would need everyone on one system, and we would need one phone system. We’ve not got either.”
He does hint however that the rewards schemes of Travel 2 (T2 Rewards) and Gold Medal (Farebank Rewards) could perhaps be united. “They are still separate, [but] we’re looking at what we do with that in the future. Potentially there could be a merger, but there’s no firm decision.
“The key thing is that we reward travel agents and incentivise them,” he adds, “no matter what scheme that’s under.”
Sophie Griffiths
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