| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 04/09/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 78 |
| Copyright: Other |
Time to throw in the towel?
HAS Holiday Autos managing director UK and Ireland Tony Seaman been listening too hard to the views of service-fee expert Nolan Burris?You may remember our friend Nolan suggested agents justify charging service fees by walking the dogs or watering the plants of their clients.
Now Tony claims that agents should “sell beach towels on the back of travel” in the same way catalogue retailer Argos is “selling travel on the back of beach towels” (Travel Weekly August 28).Now if you think this through, there are plenty of flaws in the argument.
People expect sound advice from a travel agent.
So if they do buy a beach towel from there, they’ll probably want to know all about the texture, how it washes, etc.
But the biggest problem could well be one of space. When you buy something from Argos, you wait by the desk while the item is collected from a huge store room down below.
Now, if agents start selling beach towels, sun-tan lotion and the like, where are they going to keep it all?
Most travel agents we’ve visited are very presentable on the outside and when you go round the back, the staff have to put up with a pokey little office packed full of brochures with a few charts of sales figures and a kettle.
But maybe agencies have secret underground cellars where they can store all these goodies.
And maybe they fancy selling anything connected with holidays.
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