| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 10 |
| Copyright: Other |
Pledge your support for small operators
YOUR Comment column, (Travel Weekly May 29) contained much food for thought for independents like myself who discovered – when the summer 2001 brochures were racked – that we were directing prospective clients towards the market leaders.Why should Irack companies that are brazenly attacking the retail industry which, to a great extent, has over the past 10 to 20 years made them as successful as they are today?
Better, surely, to support those who support us – the tour operator members of AITO. They are 100% behind the Campaign forReal Travel Agents, which is where the independent travel agency sector should be directing their marketing efforts.
We recently spent a lot of time with a client who wanted a specific type of lakes and mountains holiday and who eventually chose the Hampshire-based Lakes and Mountains Holidays Limited programme.
Our (potential) client lives in Hampshire. Realising Lakes and Mountains Holidays are near his home, he telephoned the firm direct, explaining that he has spent some time with Travelwise WorldChoice and had chosen their programme.
He booked direct. We would have probably have regarded him as another probable time-waster and would have telephoned in a day or so to ask when he was likely to confirm his holiday.
However, before that call was made, Lakes and Mountains Holidays Limited telephoned us. They told us of the booking, reassured us that, as we had sold the holiday, they would pay us the commission on a not-inexpensive holiday and thanked us for pointing the client in their direction.
This is the type of tour operator independents should be supporting.
Why should we waste racking space on the big two or three when there are the small two or three hundred tour operators out there with an equally good, if not better product, who deserve more support? Speak to a specialist and you will more than likely speak to someone with personal knowledge of the country, the resort, or the property.
If you were to publish a list of tour operators prepared to pass commission to travel agents who have done the initial spade work on a direct booking, those tour operators would benefit from our enhanced support and we travel agents would know who our friends are.
Louis J Rutter
Senior partner
Travelwise of Devizes
Devizes
Wiltshire