RyeSAC bans Breakaway ads

By Sarah Cannavan

Ryerson students cruising the halls for a reading week vacation deal will notice that posters advertising getaways have a new name on them.

RyeSAC banned Breakaway Tours from advertising reading week trips on campus, ending a long relationship with the travel company. Instead, RyeSAC decided to go with Temple and Temple Tours.

T.J. Donnelly, president of Breakaway Tours, was upset RyeSAC chose TNT Tours over his company. “We have the biggest parties, the biggest spring break trips and we always followed the guidelines set out for us, but they chose someone else. We were really disappointed,” Donnelly said.

Last year, Breakaway and TNT had an official agreement that Breakaway would be the sole provider of New Year’s and reading week trips.

In that agreement TNT, which specializes in educational tours, took care of the trips organized by course unions and student groups. Donnelly said when TNT started promoting spring break trips, they broke the agreement.

RyeSAC decided this summer to allow TNT to be the sole trip advertises on campus.

David Temple, co-owner of TNT, said they have a great track record with Ryerson and one of the reasons they were chosen is because they do more than just reading week trips.

“We deal with the same companies 12 months of the year, whereas Breakaway Tours just does a few weeks a year, so it helps us get better prices,” he said.

In the past, the company allowed to advertise on campus has had an agreement that gave RyeSAC a certain number of free trips based on the number of trips students bought. The free trips are used as prizes at RyeSAC-sponsored events such as pub nights and dirty bingo.

Derek Isber, vice president of student life and affairs for RyeSAC, said he was looking for the best deal for students.

“After reviewing their offers, we saw that Breakaway Tours was offering half of what TNT Tours offered us,” he said.

But, Donnelly thought his past generosity would have been enough to get the contact.

“I’ve donated money and free trips to RyeSAC every year we’ve been working with them,” he said. “If I added up the total amount, it would be pretty substantial.”