At the last ABTA conference in Marbella, I was interested to hear Thomson’s Richard Bowden-Doyle make the point that, in a market where distribution was free, Thomson would have a larger slice of the market through retailers other than Lunn Poly because its sales through agencies would be at a level roughly equivalent to its market share.
During the question time I asked why Thomson, during the MMC’s investigation into the travel industry, had not supported AITO’s condemnation of vertical integration and directional selling, as a favourable result would have been to Thomson’s advantage.
I doubt that most of the audience understood what I was getting at, and Bowden-Doyle couldn’t give much of an answer.
Roger Burnell said much the same thing as Bowden-Doyle last week, hinting that it was strange that directional selling was allowed to blossom even though the MMC had advised against the practice.
Well, all I can say to Thomson is it should have voiced its fears a long time ago. Where were Thomson when it should have stood up and been counted with AITO?
Don’t directors of public companie have it easy? If I happened to make a mess of running Sunvil, I would have to dig deep into my pockets to find extra cash as well as take a cut in salary.
When you mess it up as the chief executive of a quoted company, you just walk away and generally get a generous pay off as well. How wonderful to be rewarded for making mistakes.
What really sticks in most people’s throats is the fact that, the same people who have driven Thomson Holidays to its knees, are one and the same as those who made a pretty penny out of the flotation.
Now, with the share price a fraction of what it was, they have bought additional shares, probably knowing that the share price has bottomed out and is likely to rise in due course. The trouble is that their private shareholders don’t have the money to take advantage of the current situation, because they are losing serious bucks on Thomson shares and feel very aggrieved that Thomson management have got it so wrong. Still, anyone buying shares must know it’s a gamble.
Another myth was exploded this week, when Thomas Cook announced it was not going to offer on-line bookings on its upgraded Internet site.
At last, someone’s had the guts to tell the Web lobby that it’s all a lot of hype at the moment.
It suits all the computer buffs to frighten us poor business people into spending millions on hardware and software we don’t really need. What Thomas Cook has realised is that the majority of those wanting to go on holiday would like to speak to a human about it first.
And why not? It’s exciting discussing future holiday arrangements. It’s one thing booking an EasyJet ticket on the Internet and quite another when booking a holiday.
Our clients love to discuss their holiday plans with us and I hope agents don’t find it objectionable telephoning us either.
God save us from the time when our job as tour operators will consist of loading data on to one computer to be accessed by another.