Mercury Holidays has doubled its agent incentive for the rest of this month.

The increase from £10 to £20 for every adult passenger booked applies to all short-haul, long-haul, escorted tours and river cruise product.

It also applies to bookings made with sister brand Sunspot Tours.

Payment will be made in the form of Love2shop vouchers.

The increase applies until the end of August on bookings for any departure date, but excludes flight-only bookings.

News of the boost to Mercury’s incentive follows an apology from CEO Tom Bugeja for an advert that some agents found insulting.

The ad, which has been running on Facebook for at least three weeks, told people they didn’t need to rely on ‘experts’ to Google hotels for them.

Some agents thought Mercury was suggesting that they weren’t ‘experts’ and that they relied on search engines to make recommendations.

Tom explained to Travel Gossip that the advert was actually aimed at Mercury’s competitors who advertise low prices but encourage clients to call to book, then persuade them to pay more.

However, he said he would remove the advert immediately.

A company spokesperson said it had been working on the promotion for several weeks and it was not connected to the agents’ complaints about the advert.