Brisbane’s stunning five-star W Hotel was the setting for the 2019 Australian Travel Agents Co-operative (ATAC) annual conference last month with members and suppliers celebrating a year of growth and success.

 

Proceedings got underway with a board meeting to confirm the election of directors of the co-op before the annual general meeting with members took place.

 

Among the topics of discussion was the performance of the group which has achieved several key milestones over the past year including record total transaction value (TTV), override payments and new members.

 

Speaking with travelBulletin, ATAC’s Chairman Ken Morgan said the group would achieve TTV of $250 million which was a 10% increase on the prior year.

 

Morgan said that members of the co-op would enjoy the spoils of record overrides with the pool increasing to $1.2 million, having hit stretch targets with many preferred partners.

 

“We’ve been really hammering hard about supporting all of our preferred partners, particularly on air and as we’ve always said to our members you’ve got to play the long game and when you do, look what happens, the override pool increases as we’ve all pitched in,” Morgan said.

 

The co-op has also grown in membership and now comprises 120 members with the addition of 17 more the past year. And while there’s no magic number that the co-op wishes to achieve, Morgan believes there’s room for more, with Western Australia seen as a key market for potential members.

 

“We see lots of opportunities to grow through word of mouth. We did some research this year and out of our membership we ended up with a net promoter score of 82%.

Ken Morgan, Chairman ATAC

 

We did some research this year and out of our membership we ended up with a net promoter score of 82%.” “It’s because of the no fees, low overheads and bonuses that are members are happy and spreading the word,” Morgan added.

 

The 2020 conference will take place in Darwin.

 

Source: Travel Bulletin November 2019