Budget to cut links with travel agents

Tour operator Budget Travel has announced it will cease taking bookings via independent travel agents from December.

The company will concentrate instead on dealing directly with its customers via its 40 Budget Travel shops, its call centre and its website.

Budget Travel accounts for an estimated 40% of the package holiday market in Ireland.

In 2004 it carried approximately 400,000 people from Ireland to holidays across Europe, the Caribbean and America. Turnover at the company is in excess of €200m.

Budget Travel managing director Eugene Corcoran said that the move followed an exceptional performance by the company’s directly owned channels over the past six months.

"Cutting out the middle man will enable us to offer cheaper, better value holidays for our customers and that’s our primary focus," Mr Corcoran said.

"Over the past six months, we’ve enjoyed an exceptional performance in our directly owned channels and it’s proven to us that we can in fact fill all our capacity in the coming years through our lower cost, directly owned channels.”