Powell takes back seat on whingeing holidaymakers

Powell takes back seat on whingeing holidaymakers

THOMSON Holidays managing director Shaun Powell has distanced himself from industry comments about whingeing holidaymakers.

“We don’t think that customers are whingers. We think that those who have complaints generally need them to be sorted and solved,”he said.

“There may be some pockets of people who are trying it on and that may be increasing but it is a small number of people and its missing the point.

“Most people who complain have a genuine reason and instead of concentrating on whingeing, we should concentrate on improving the holidays,” he said.

Powell’s comments follow Airtours UKLG and distribution managing director Richard Carrick’s assertion that the operator would no longer give in to whingers as exclusively reported in Travel Weekly.

Powell said: “We have disassociated ourselves with those comments and we would also disassociate ourselves from similar comments by other industry bodies.”

He said Thomson’s total compensation bill has gone down 69% since summer 1997, although he refused to give figures. The decrease was largely due to the company’s commitment to sorting problems out in resort.

THOMSON Holidays managing director Shaun Powell has distanced himself from industry comments about whingeing holidaymakers.

“We don’t think that customers are whingers. We think that those who have complaints generally need them to be sorted and solved,”he said.

“There may be some pockets of people who are trying it on and that may be increasing but it is a small number of people and its missing the point.

“Most people who complain have a genuine reason and instead of concentrating on whingeing, we should concentrate on improving the holidays,” he said.

Powell’s comments follow Airtours UKLG and distribution managing director Richard Carrick’s assertion that the operator would no longer give in to whingers as exclusively reported in Travel Weekly.

Powell said: “We have disassociated ourselves with those comments and we would also disassociate ourselves from similar comments by other industry bodies.”

He said Thomson’s total compensation bill has gone down 69% since summer 1997, although he refused to give figures. The decrease was largely due to the company’s commitment to sorting problems out in resort.