Advantage chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes told TTG the membership growth Advantage saw in its 2021/22 financial year had continued into 2022/23. "We’re still seeing the growth come in – we’re actually at the point where we can’t turn around all recruitment enquiries because there are so many coming in.

"It’s a real mixture in terms of people moving between models, new businesses setting up and private investment coming in, looking for an opportunity to get back into travel now they see it’s on the up again. The private equity (PE) market is really coming back."

Cookes said this PE investment was coming through in a variety of ways, including direct investment in individual Advantage members, as well as via Advantage’s work with M&A specialists.

"We’ll sometimes get an approach from people looking for opportunities to invest in the market, or sometimes they already have a business partner – someone with the money who has found someone with the travel knowledge. They then come to us to discuss how we can get things started operationally."

Cookes said Advantage’s growing public profile had led to more conversations with people who may have a business – or businesses – in another sector and want to invest in travel. "They perhaps see the movement towards the travel agent again, or an opportunity to get back into the industry if they’ve been in it before," Cookes continued.

"We work with members to look at whether there’s anyone we can pair them up with. We talk to them a lot about succession planning too, especially family businesses – what support will those taking on these businesses need? Then you have those standard members of many years – the next generation taking over might want to go over to managed service. It’s very fluid with people able to move around between models."

Cookes reiterated Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said’s assertion that AMS was where the consortium was most readily seeing growth, although the 2021/22 figures, she said, were somewhat skewed by two major new standard members – Barrhead Travel and Kuoni. "It [AMS] is definitely where the growth is at the moment," said Cookes.

Responsibility for homeworkers currently sits within Advantage’s AMS division, but Cookes stressed Advantage would continue to provide dedicated support for homeworkers, such as the ongoing provision of a homeworking-focused business development manager. "The growth will sit with Emily [Shannon, Advantage’s new managed services lead], but it’s a different skillset looking after homeworkers, they have different needs," said Cookes.

Homeworking, said Cookes, is common in two forms within Advantage – those who operate under Advantage centrally, and those who work for individual Advantage members as homeworkers. These include newly crowned TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies No.1 Agent UK and Ireland 2023 Beverley Travel, which recently launched a homeworking division.

"We work with our members on how they can secure homeworkers. We’ll assist them with the legal agreements so they are protected, for instance. Homeworking in general is continuing to grow, and we’re there to make sure homeworking is delivering for them.

"It’s all part of the ‘modern retailing’ piece, how are members going to capture all of the business that’s out there. If you run a retail store that is open from 9am to 5pm, then homeworking is a great way of doing that. It gives you flexibility. They [homeworkers] can service their social media enquiries or act as out-of-hours support. There are so many ways they can set up – it’s definitely something we’re seeing growth in. And there is an opportunity for members who aren’t currently doing it.

Cookes added a new partnerships role within Advantage’s commercial team, headed up by John Sullivan, would explore new opportunities, such as with hotel chains and tourist boards.

"There’s so much potential to do more with tourist boards who want direct distribution. We work alongside our supplier partners on this too. This new role will be about facilitating new partnerships such as with airports, perhaps even some print and digital partners like sun cream brands."

‘Changed the lens’

Cookes said the pandemic had "completely changed" the commercial landscape. "It has changed how people see agents and how they engage with them," she said. "It changed how people book travel, both on the leisure and business side. I think a lot of these changes have either been accelerated [by Covid], or wouldn’t have happened at all.

"It’s changed the lens through which we view the world, and members are so much more open to different ideas now. Advantage’s main service to members is commercial, but it’s much wider than just getting deals with supplier partners.

"All this stuff around the edge has been driven by what we experienced during the pandemic and people wanting to bullet-proof their businesses. They want to know that if – or when – we go into another crisis, they have done their best to have the depth and breadth to make sure they are as protected as they can be and aren’t just trying to shift volume."