AS THE old saying goes, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
And speaking with the ATAC leadership team over the weekend during its annual conference on the Gold Coast, one gets the sense the next 12 months will prove that every dog may indeed have its day.
The co-operative buying group has worked tirelessly to cultivate an ethos of transparency, fairness, and superior buying power for its loyal group of members since its inception 35 years ago.
ATAC’s vision statement is ‘partners in prosperity’, reinforcing what it feels is a key point-of-difference with many other buying groups in the market.
TravelBulletin recently sat down with General Manager Michelle Emerton and Chair Jack Taylor to discuss ATAC’s model for the future, with the duo adamant its special sauce will remain the ability to be unincumbered by distracting priorities that often prevent its competitors from truly maximising value for members.
“The point remains that we are about a member-driven outcome, and ATAC as an organisation will always – because it has no conflict with anybody – put members first and make decisions that are in the best interest of the members all the time, every time,” Taylor explained.
“That’s because the shareholder is the member, so there’s never a conflict there, which for a lot of organisations that we compete against in the agency or the network space, have a challenge with because they actually have to balance two equilibriums.
“This creates such a unique advantage in the market for us,” he added.
Speaking in the opening address at the conference, Taylor also told ATAC members that in an industry where there is “so much smoke and mirrors”, the group places a focus on “being real”.
“We love that authenticity and at the end of the day, we want to support people and that is what we are here to do, because running a small business and being an office of one or an office of four can be very, very lonely, but we know at ATAC that we are part of something so much bigger.
“Every dollar at ATAC goes back to the member in some way, shape, or form, whether that is through services or through an override or dividend.”
Emerton also told travelBulletin that she believes key partners and suppliers have bought into its ethos of wanting to see a level playing field for travel agents in an industry dominated by the bigger players.
“I don’t like saying we are the underdog, but there is almost a duopoly of travel agent groups now – it absolutely feels like that – but we have really great relationships with partners that want to see us succeed.
“They also want to know that our members are on a level playing field,” Emerton said.
ATAC made a big decision last year to change its business model, adopting a fee-based system for the first time alongside a tiered remuneration scale for member overrides, all the while still retaining 100% of at-source commission for members.
Asking how the new model had performed over the last 12 months, Taylor said the picture was predominantly positive.
ATAC has enjoyed an 81% rise in TTV since adopting the new structure, which outside of fees also incentivises agent members to expand their preferred supplier business, which ATAC has always insisted will ultimately lead to increased income for everyone.
“This was a member-first decision, even though it was asking them to take some money out of their pocket, it was a member-first decision.
“And the benefit for us is that this is not set down and finished either, while there’s no immediate plans to review it, it’s certainly something on our mind…that we can pick back up again when and if we need to,” he said.
In terms of those sliding scales, over 91% of the membership had remained or increased the tier they were on, with 41% increasing their tier, Taylor added.
But the ATAC Chair conceded “the elephant in the room” is that despite the group growing its TTV over the last year for members through the new model, there had been some attrition in its membership ranks over the last year, resulting in a marginal 6% impact on revenue.
Taylor confirmed that around 12 members had departed the organisation, 10 directly related to the new fee model, and the remainder for other reasons.
In that same time, there was increase in preferred partner spending of 52%, which Taylor said had inspired its members to take their own businesses to new heights.
With a more agile model now in place, ATAC said a primary focus is on growing its member base with the right profile fit for its group.
That is one of the fundamental reasons why ATAC announced a major brand refresh at its conference last week, with a new logo and suite of member advantages designed to highlight its independence and strong connectivity.
“Part of [the rebrand] was to say, ‘how do we attract new members? Why are we missing out? What are people looking for that they’re not seeing in what we’re delivering?’,” Emerton told TB.
“We did a big session for a day with our agents and also another day with agents that are not in the group so they could give us some feedback,” she added.
In delivering the announcement on stage, Taylor said that following a strategic brand consultant review and gathering member and industry feedback, the result was that the brand needed to evolve.
“Ultimately, we needed a refresh of our visual identity for our membership to grow and through the incredible work of our membership, it is a pleasure to introduce you all to our new visual identity.
“The whole purpose around this very important strategic objective of the organisation is to drive the next generation of a ATAC’s growth,” Taylor added.
Another key pillar of future growth strategy is making more “aggressive member-first decision”, Taylor added, a more evolved commercial mentality which recently saw ATAC change its air consolidation partner to Helloworld’s Air Tickets division, effective 01 January 2025.
“So why did we test the market? Well, we found there were some challenges in member recruitment based on the air offering we had.
“We needed to validate that, because of those challenges was there a solution and in turn a problem that could be solved, once that was validated, we said ‘yeah, we need to do this’.
“The second reason was because we had a number of members abandon selling air as a part of their business strategy, and thirdly, in 2019 and most financial years before then, we had the majority of our revenue from air as an ATAC override.
“So, when you add all those things together, it said to us…the glory days, for lack of a better phrase, had flown away, they don’t exist anymore, but how can we get further down the path than where we were standing today?”
The decision also marked the end of the existing relationship with the Spiros Alysandratos founded Consolidated Travel, which has supplied ATAC with air consolidation for many years.
“We’re really grateful for the positive partnership that we built together at Consolidated, and we will look back on all those years with fond memories, but now we’re excited for that next step that we have to make for our members.
“It’s time for updates and it’s time for a refresh,” Taylor enthused.
More changes were made following ATAC’s AGM in terms of leadership as well, with a refreshed board revealed at its conference.
After the voting was complete, the latest composition of board saw the following members elected:
The Board
Kirsty Eccles – Meridian Travel
Meg Hill – Cruise Express
Jack Taylor – Performance Travel
Holly Velardo – HollyDay Travel
Office Bearers:
Chair – Jack Taylor
Vice Chair – Holly Velardo
Treasurer – Ken Morgan
Secretary – Nicole King
General Directors – Meg Hill, Cruise Express; Kirsty Eccles, Meridian Travel; and Sandra Ferraro, Time 4 Travel.
Following the voting, Emerton said the electees represented a “powerhouse and diverse group of travel business owners that truly reflects the ATAC membership”.
For now, we can only sit back and see how ATAC can work like a dog to become top dog, with Taylor and his team confident he can get more members’ tails wagging over the next year.
