COMPETITIONAND CO-OPERATION

We found many examples of ‘mortar and bricks’ willing to work alongside ‘websites and clicks’, and importantly, recognising the benefits both can have when they work together. Tripadeal offers product through Travellers Choice; Luxury Escapes works with Travelmanagers and the Express Travel Group, while Ignite is even more closely aligned with traditional travel retailing through a 49% stake in the company held by Flight Centre.

“I think there’s certainly evidence they can work together,” said Christian Hunter, Managing Director at Travellers Choice, who joined forces with Norm Black’s business over 12 months ago.

“Initially there was a little bit of scepticism because the OTA sector is seen as the competitor, however when the phones started ringing, members changed their approach fairly rapidly.

“While we are doing an online transaction, we’re real, we care about the outcome of your holiday.”

Adam Schwab, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Luxury Escapes, has also recently started offering Qantas points on his company’s offerings thanks to its partnership with the Australian flag carrier.

“If you look at the brands we work with, they’re the best in the world, so we become trusted partners with these brands. We do sell packages for less than others, and we move our inventory well in advance. We give visibility and public relations benefits to our partners, it’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because we invest so much in making our partners look good.”

“In some ways you could look at Qantas as being a competitor of ours, but we’ve turned that into a relationship and a winwin for both of us. We’re really interested in generating win-win-win partnerships where the customer wins, the partner wins and we win, and that’s what we’ve always been about.”