| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 24/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 70 |
| Copyright: Other |
Noel nets criticism for airing his view on line
SUNVIL Holidays managing director and Travel Weekly columnist Noel Josephides has been eating large quantities of humble pie this week after years of criticising the Internet.Sunvil is actually taking bookings on-line, a fact which brings no joy to the industry’s most outspoken Luddite.
A survey of his direct clients found 53% had home access to the Internet and 66% had made on-line travel arrangements.
“I felt quite depressed because I was always of the opposite view,” he said.
Despite his deep knowledge of the industry, it’s not the first time Noel’s been wrong and it won’t be the last.
He’s outspoken and prepared to put his neck on the line because he doesn’t answer to anyone. But he’s also big enough to hold his hands up when he’s made a mistake.
Noel winds an awful lot of people up and many of them ask, through gritted teeth, why we give him a column.
Of course, there’s no need to reply – the person asking the question has already given the answer.
You can’t have an opinion about his views unless you’ve read them and that’s the whole point – it’s often a compelling read.
We’d like to have the other side of the coin and have asked the big companies, whom Noel so often criticises, to write a column.
But the top people are understandably too busy and the others are either too scared to write for us or have to get everything vetted.
You end up with columns talking about coffee meetings and lunch breaks.
Noel’s not everyone’s cup of tea and he deserves some stick when he gets things wrong. But it’s a shame there aren’t more people prepared to speak their mind about issues affecting the industry.
Shocked: Noel is not scared of airing his views, despite how unpopular they may be