Time to give coverage to small independents

Time to give coverage to small independents

I WAS interested to read Darren Panto’s letter (Travel Weekly September 4) with regards to Mystery Shopper as I have just read with interest last week’s article on Tunisia (Travel Weekly August 28), where four high-street travel agents were asked to review four programmes to Tunisia.

I find the results hard to believe, that First Choice’s Summersun brochure can score more highly than Cadogan Holidays’ 68-page standalone brochure. All of the companies reviewed are either part of a larger group of firms, or in the case of Cadogan, have more than one programme to other destinations.

I cannot believe that Wigmore Holidays, who is a specialist company only featuring Tunisia, did not have its brochure reviewed, and feel that, again, it is the smaller specialist company that is missing out. The review could have included coverage of a very good independent small operator.

On the following page Travel Weekly also asked three operators for their recommendations for three clients with special requests for Tunisia. The three companies asked were Cosmos, First Choice and Airtours. Why wasn’t a true Tunisian specialist also part of this survey?

Tijani Guetat, managing director of Wigmore is Tunisian and knows his country inside out, whenever we have been asked a question that we cannot answer either Tijani or his excellent staff have gone out of their way to answer the question. It really is an excellent tour operator and we are proud to be associated with them.

Although I know reporting space is limited, I still feel coverage should be fairer to the smaller independent operators who only specialise in one area.

When was the last time that the following had their brochures reviewed Tapestry, Greek Sun, Unicorn, Classic etc?

Lee Harrison

Managing director

Select World Travel

Great Malvern

Worcestershire