T ravel agents are rightly fuming at the preferential deals being given by suppliers to Internet company lastminute.com.
You can’t blame lastminute.com – if it can knock out great deals to bolster its profile, then of course it will.
And it’s sticking your head in the sand to say suppliers shouldn’t deal with Internet companies because it is clearly going to become an increasingly important distribution method.
But why are some suppliers biting the hand that has fed them for so long? Why are they bending over backwards for a new electronic agent at the expense of traditional high-street agents which have supported them for many years?
It’s an absolute nonsense to suggest that companies like lastminute.com are attracting a niche market. Everyone from nerds to pensioners are using the Net and the amount of advertising that lastminute.com is doing will surely attract millions more to look at the site.
The result is that agents like Martin Churchill of Holmes Travel (Travel Weekly Letters, January 17) are left looking stupid when his client can get a much better deal on the Internet than he can offer.
Suppliers must play fair by agents and give them the same deals. If they don’t they will pay the price because although direct bookings will grow, good agents will remain very powerful for many years to come.
Jeremy Skidmore – editor