| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 24/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 13 |
| Copyright: Other |
Last weekend’s CARTA conference in Maastricht was a breathe of fresh air – there was absolutely no mention of low commission or direct sell
Noel Josephides
One of the messages communicated to us by the BBC’s head of customer services at last week’s Campaign for Real Travel Agents’ conference was that if you rise on price, you fall on price.How true of Airtours’ current plight. Buying Fti, then pushing up capacity to two million and starting a discount war in Germany has left the company struggling out of its depth. Any thoughts of global domination must now be over and the prospects of a German owned UK travel industry is very firmly on the cards.
Whatever happens now will depend on how a few people see the future of their share options. How sad that arrogance and greed have led to the demise of the most efficient tour operators in the world.
In the meantime, the discussions at the CARTA conference centred around matching the client to the right holiday and other such mundane matters because that is what our industry is really all about. There will be comments on the fact the conference was poorly attended but the little ones that were there were good ones and that’s what keeps us all going.
How refreshing that there was not a single conversation on commissions being too low or the threat of direct sell. In fact, one agent echoed the general mood: “If the consortia continue to push suppliers for higher and higher commissions, then they will push operators to sell directly to the public and then what will happen to us?”
The fact is that, for many of us tour operators, the consortia are not working and our bookings are still coming from a solid core of agents (whether consortia members or not) who will book their clients with the operator most suited to the clients’ requirements.
We hear rumours of consortia minimums of 20% commission and of increased demands for marketing contributions. Another agent summed it up: “If I get 18% to 20% from one operator who also sells through the multiples, then I will have to give at least 10% off to the client in order to match the multiples’ discounts, so that leaves me worse off than getting 12% from an operator whose product is not discounted because it is not promoted through the vertically integrated retail chains.”
CARTA agents who were at the conference did not sell on commission but on the operator’s ability to deliver a quality holiday. They would rather have a repeat client at a lower commission rate than a higher notional commission coupled with lower customer satisfaction.
Those of us who have been around for some time know very well that trying to buy business through higher commissions generally leads to bankruptcy. How many independent operators who were giving 18% to 20% commission five years ago are still around today? Not all agents can sell product from members of the Association of Independent Tour Operators and AITO operators accept this.
No-one expects miracles. The fact is that, in CARTA, there is a trust between the two sides of the industry not found elsewhere. In CARTA it’s professionalism that counts and I think we shall be seeing the link between quality independent agents and their tour operator counterparts flourish and strengthen. I believe that CARTA’s time is now.
“Our bookings are stillcoming from a solid core of agents whetherconsortiamembersor not”