The 1ndependence Travel Group for independent agents this weekend signed up its 150th agency and remains on schedule to have 300 members within the next two years.

1ndependence Travel Group is an agency service operated by Orient Express Travel Group through its Express Ticketing arm, similar to the OETG Select Group for agents servicing Australian Asian communities.

Executive General Manager of Orient Express Travel Group, Ari Magoutis, said 1ndependence now had effective scale. Double digit growth and a proven track record of delivering increased returns to members combined with a dedication to customer service was reported to the members at the recent 1ndependence Forum in Guangzhou.

“Our ‘Your independent local travel expert – Talk to us!’ branding is working well too, members are telling us,” he said.

“The transparency of our partnership agreements rates especially high in the comments we received at the recent member forum in Guangzhou and in correspondence by our members,” he said.

In a recent letter to 1ndependence, Ghada Assad, Director of Travel 2000 wrote: The decision to change from one consolidator to 1ndependence was originally a financial decision but soon after I have realised that our bonus was not the extra dollar we are getting, it was the ultimate service and the mutual respect that Orient Express in whole have not stopped giving us. I thank God that I have made this decision, it was well overdue!!!

Stuart Reay, Director of Fairflights Travel Family wrote: We wish we had swapped to Express Ticketing much earlier! The change to our business in extra service levels and income have been incredible!!!

The 1ndependence business platform offers agents a flexible, transparent, low-cost and non-mandatory core support service with an annual membership of just $500 which includes the Express Ticketing suite of products, access to competitive Airline and Wholesaler content, travel agent Technology services, preferred access to Sabre GDS, and Operations Support.

Mr Magoutis said Express Ticketing had developed several additional products for its members. These will be unveiled soon.