| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 15/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 10 |
| Copyright: Other |
We’re agents, not just brochure distributors
THE MOVE by Thomson and Airtours to include telephone numbers for direct sales on nearly every page in their 2001 brochures was inevitable.Thomson discussed the situation with Scottish Passenger Agents’ Retail Consortium prior to the brochures being launched and, while we have a good working relationship with them, I was under no illusions that it was going to happen no matter what we said.
It is also significant that Airtours and Thomson both came out with almost identical changes to their brochures.
Thomson didn’t win any friends by failing to ensure that its Preferred Agents were listed on both its Web site and its phone lines. How can Thomson then convince my members this was by mistake and not by design? By the time it was fixed, the main rush for bookings was over. Anyway, no customer is going to make two phone calls to find their nearest agent, when one call confirms their booking.Thomson and Airtours need every distribution method they can think of because Advantage Travel Centres has not performed well for Airtours and Thomson is not getting the support it needs from Lunn Poly. As a consortium, we have done better than most with Thomson but it stretches the relationship too far when our members are effectively moved from being a booking agent to part of a free brochure distribution network. Agents either go with the flow or they sell somebody else. It’s not a difficult equation, it’s just a difficult decision.
Ken McLeod,
Chief executive
SPARC
Helensburgh
n See Analysis, page 8