| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 03/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 8 |
| Copyright: Other |
Comment
Brochures without prices -Êabout time
AIRTOURS Holidays and UKLG distributionmanaging director Richard Carrick believes we will soon be having brochures without prices.About time. If we could have just one edition of a brochure, it would save hundreds of thousands of pounds for operators and countless trees for the rest of us. We are forever receiving letters from agents who complain they’re having to fill up skips with redundant brochures.
And most of the prices in brochures are irrelevant anyway, when you include fluid pricing and discounts.
But holidaymakers do want an idea of how much they’re going to have to pay for their holidays when they’re sitting at home studying the brochures.
Perhaps operators could print a price guide or an insert in brochures, which says, for example, “£400-£500 – check with your travel agent for the best deal”.
Operators also have to make sure they service agents properly. Lead-in fares in ferry brochures have caused all sorts of problems for retailers (Travel Weekly May 15).
Meanwhile, Airtours deserves a pat on the back for listening to agents’ concerns about direct numbers in brochures (see front-page story). Has this attempt to curry favour with agents during a key sales period got anything to do with the fact summer 2000 is a bit flat, Airtours has got plenty of capacity to shift and its sales through Thomas Cook and Lunn Poly are not too clever?Perhaps I’m too cynical.
Jeremy Skidmore – editor