Portland’s price claims are wide of the mark

Comment

Portland’s price claims are wide of the mark

T homson’s direct-sell arm Portland Holidays is out of order printing misleading price comparisons in its brochure.

The company should withdraw them before it gets censored by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Portland is claiming JMC, Airtours and First Choice are all more expensive. There’s nothing wrong with boasting to the public about offering a better deal or better service than your rivals, but the problem is that Portland is deliberately not comparing like with like.

The small print admits it doesn’t take into account travel agency discounts. When was the last time someone bought a standard mass-market holiday without some sort of discount?As Portland’s sister company, Lunn Poly will happily tell you discounts are readily available throughout the year.

These sort of claims are not only silly and misleading but they reinforce the public’s view that every industry is contributing to rip-off Britain and travel agents must be making a fortune at everyone else’s expense.

It’s probably also damaging to Thomson. The operator obviously isn’t named by Portland as more expensive but as it sells through agents, it must be ripping off the public, mustn’t it? And how does it square with the Thomson advertising campaign trying to get people to pay more for a quality holiday? By all means be aggressive and knock your rivals Portland, but be fair about it.

Jeremy Skidmore – editor