TWO major retailers are poised to sign
deals with London-based firm The Exceptional Travel Company to use a new
holiday card concept, which could significantly reduce the role of the agent
and do away with standard brochures forever.
Director
Darren Bastin confirmed he is in final stage talks with two well-known groups
about rolling out the concept – provisionally dubbed T cards – in various
stores.
The
cards will be trialled in a number of agencies under a holiday type, such as
families, adventure or honeymoon, or by price, for example £300 and less.
Each
card will display standard details and pictures of the hotel, resort and
general facilities, with the price and availability of the holiday shown once a
bar code on the card is scanned at a computer screen in the store.
Customers
can then take the cards to their travel agent or take them home and continue
with the booking through the operator’s call centre or on-line.
The
idea behind the cards is to encourage customers to make their own buying
decisions – without the assistance of a travel agent – and to bring down the
cost of brochure production.
Bastin
said: “This isn’t something that replaces brochures, but it does take the
pressure off agents in the shop.
“The
bar codes act as a reference and will allow operators to track bookings coming from the Internet,
the call centre, the telephone and travel agencies.”
Following a deal with NTL – owners
of selling system Traveleye – there is also scope to extend the T cards to
potentially unstaffed stores and non-travel retailers, such as Sainsbury’s and
WHSmith.
The unnamed
travel groups were set to sign exclusive contracts with The Exceptional Travel
Company as Travel Weekly went to press, with trials due to start next month.