AIRTOURS deputy managing director Richard Carrick, an entertaining speaker from his days as a lecturer, had the audience rolling around in stitches at the Institute of Travel and Tourism conference in Rhode Island as he poked fun at his rivals.
Carrick’s presentation was about customer focus, a phrase which he felt was overused and difficult to get hold of.
To brighten up his speech, he pulled out of his bag several objects called ‘Wrigglers’, squidgy toys which were also difficult to get hold of.
He then circled the room, handing them out to his various foes.
First to get one was his counterpart at Thomson, deputy managing director Shaun Powell.
“It’s a difficult thing to get hold of, but Shaun will be talking about brand leadership as opposed to market leadership,” he said in a dig at Thomson’s recent attempt to increase capacity in response to Airtours’ bid for First Choice.
Former colleague Steve Endacott, now at Carlson, also got one as Carrick recalled the time Endacott referred to Carrick’s job as ‘airy, fairy marketing’. There was another word in this description, but we couldn’t print it in a family newspaper.
Patricia Yates from the Consumer Association’s Holiday Which? magazine was handed a Wriggler as Carrick said he hoped it would help her grasp the extent to which Holiday Which? customers represent the travelling public.
Finally, First Choice Holidays and Flights managing director Dermot Blastland was sought out, but alas was not in the audience.
In a reference to First Choice’s uncertain future, Carrick said he wanted to congratulate Blastland for the subject matter of his speech, which was entitled “Where do we go from here?”