Following the release of the Advantage Travel Partnership’s financial results earlier this month, Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer of Advantage announced at its annual conference in Benidorm today that for its last full year of trading, the Partnership recorded its best-ever year for member retention and recruitment.

For the year, 1 October 21 to 30 September 22, the size of the membership base grew by 25%, with increases across all membership models.

Cookes said: “As a member-owned partnership, member satisfaction is our top priority, and we are clearly delighted that we retained our existing members and welcomed so many new members and their teams to the Partnership last year.

“Size and scale is vital for many reasons, not least the commercial leverage it gives us with our partners and suppliers, which in turn benefits and drives value to our members.  I am pleased to say that today we are the number one independent consortia for over 80% of our leisure supplier partners.  And, with our Global buying scale of £12.5 billion and UK buying scale of £4.5 billion, we are uniquely placed to deliver significant commercial benefits to our members across all our operating models. It’s this scale and the commercial value we deliver, alongside our range of products and services delivered by industry experts from a financially robust membership organisation, that sets us apart.

“Globally we also continue to expand our footprint with representation in 83 countries from 96 global members enables us to support our TMC members with access to likeminded TMC’s, a key driver when pitching and servicing corporate travel.  Footprint expansion remains a key element of Advantage’s three-year strategic framework as further growth enables us to negotiate globally and partner with key organisations across key source markets in the US, Asia and Europe.”

Cookes went on to say that in line with the growth of the Partnership’s network, Advantage is expanding its Membership Services team to ensure that all members continue to receive dedicated support.

She confirmed that lead roles for members operating within Business Travel, it’s Standard Membership and Advantage Managed Services including homeworking, are being created, in recognition that each area needs different specialist support, and that five additional business development roles are being created in the membership services area.

Cookes added that Membership Steering Groups would continue to play an important role in driving forward the Partnership’s ambitious plans for growth.