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The Global Travel Group Conference: Andrew Botterill reflects on 17 years with consortium

Former Global Travel Group chief executive Andrew Botterill will cut ties with the group after 17 years this week when he leaves his current role with dnata Travel Europe.

He told this week’s overseas Global conference in Spain that the travel agency group was “closest to his heart” because of the passion of its travel agent members.

The chief executive of B2B at dnata Travel Europe first invested in Global 17 years ago and oversaw the sale of its parent Stella Travel Services to the Emirates-owed division in 2014.

Speaking to Travel Weekly after addressing members at the conference, Botterill said: “Despite the rise of the internet and the death of the travel agent predicted every year this business is thriving.

“Global is where I started having come back from working overseas and actually of all the businesses I have been involved with this business has been constantly evolving.

“Today there are obviously fewer travel agents but arguably the quality and expertise is a lot better. There is no doubt in my mind that for good travel agents there is a bright future.

“They have adopted technology and social media and they have moved with the times and some of them have got great businesses.”

Reflecting on the last 17 years, Botterill said the Global model has had to change so that today it is more focused on the quality of its membership than on sheer numbers.

He said churning members was too expensive and it has become more important for the group to nurture new members by providing a range of business support services.

“The model has changed from looking for huge volumes of agents to keeping a sensible number, which is around 350, and improving the quality,” said Botterill.

“Now we have lots of agents who are winning awards, which proves it was the right strategy.”

Global, which was founded 25 years ago by George Begg, established itself after it struck an exclusive five-year distribution deal with Airtours after a proposed sale to the operator fell through.

In its early days it courted controversy by not being a member of Abta, something Botterill said made everything “twice as hard as it could have been” because the Abta badge was so powerful.

However, he says the changes Abta has made in the interim to its financial protection regime indicates the Global approach to using trust accounts has “stood the test of time”.

Global was also a central player in the failed attempt to establish a permanent super-consortium after the major tour operators slashed commission to 7% in 2005.

Although the Triton group, which also included Advantage and Worldchoice, ultimately fell apart Botterill said it achieved a lot.

“Fundamentally the tripartite agreement was set up to protect travel agencies through a difficult period in many ways.

“We achieved an awful lot together but it was probably never going to be forever. It was something we did at a time when there was a lot of uncertainty around independent agents.

“Although it only lasted two or three years what it did was stabilise and protect the interests of independent agents during that period.

“All of the consortia that were in that tripartite agreement have gone on to be successful businesses.”

Shortly after Triton’s demise Worldchoice was sold the Travel Network Group despite interest from Stella while Advantage remained independent.

Global attracted the interest of Travel2 and Travelbag parent Stella, but when its parent investor CVC started to experience financial problems the group was sold to Emirates-owned dnata after selling Harvey World Travel.

Botterill said the Triton project saw Global create the new supply of product that helped secure the future of agents, and that still works with Advantage and Worldchoice today.

“Initially it was all about securing commercial terms via conventional tour operators but when commissions started to decline it was more important to get agents access to product, not just charter flights.

“Because we had formed our own bed bank and flight consolidator we realised, without high commissions, access to product was really important so Triton Rooms and Triton Airfares became a real focus for our members and our business.

“You had the low-cost flying model and had to understand the benefits of scheduled air and you had new up and coming destinations like the Middle East and Indian Ocean.”

Botterill said among all the change the one consistent among all the businesses he has been involved with has been Global.

“In the late 90s, early 2000s, travel agents just sold packages on behalf of the big four or five tour operators.

“There are now very few agents that are thriving by selling vertically integrated tour operator packages, they have diversified and got more sophisticated product.

“There is still a lot of research that goes on online but ultimately travel is going to be one of those industries where there is always going to be a requirement for some face-to-face conversations.”

Botterill said he plans to take some time off while he weighs up t some options and that he hoped to be able to announce something in travel towards the end of the year.

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