I remember one Monday in the mid to late 1980s coming into the office and being given the Thomson brochure on Greece.
The prices were incredible, probably cheaper than they had been three years previously. I thought it would be the end for us. This was Thomson hiking capacity and lowering prices in order to take out the threat of Harry Goodman’s Intasun. We survived, but in a price/capacity war it is often not the main protagonist that dies but many other less significant operators way below that level.
Naturally, it’s hard to swallow the fact you are no longer top dog as Thomson will now have to do.
Nor is it surprising that Thomson’s knee-jerk reaction is to do what it has always done before. Of course, it forgets it is no longer privately owned. If I had shares in Thomson I would not care a damn if they were the biggest or the smallest, provided I could sell my shares at a profit and get an increased dividend every year.
How naive city folk are to ever think that our industry had kicked old habits. The same mentality still rules at Thomson and you would need a complete culture change at the top to alter it.
I don’t blame Airtours chairman David Crossland for taking another shot at First Choice. With that sort of money being handed out, who would say no?
I think he’s also got the measure of a weak and, in my opinion, criminally negligent Government. As I said a few weeks ago, shareholders now come before clients and the Government still seems to be blissfully unaware of the fact or, more likely, is quite unwilling to do anything about it.
Is any business – which is being harmed by the fact that after 18 months no action has been taken on the transparency issue – not entitled to ask for compensation?
Let’s be quite clear about what this hostile takeover is going to mean. Many jobs will be lost and many associated livelihoods threatened. It is hard to see what benefit the travelling public will have.
Prices will not go down. Don’t believe anyone who tells you the recent spate of consolidations has led to lower holiday rates. It’s the strength of the pound that has kept brochure prices low.
Has holiday quality really been improved by the trend to vertical integration? You would be naive if you thought it had. The same habits are still there. You only have to live the tour operating side of the industry to know what I’m saying is right.
Yes, we may be worried about the height of balcony railings and the safety of the odd gas heater, but I really don’t believe that these were issues in the first place. Why is it just us and not the rest of Europe that is concerned?
Vertical integration has led to directional selling which, ultimately, will lead to a lack of choice. And, of course, we would lose another airline as Air 2000 would be taken out of the market.
Do you still believe charter rates would fall? And what commission rate would an enlarged Going Places want from independent tour operators?
Oh, sorry, the Government thinks it’s all quite fair.
Well, I wish someone in the Department of Trade and Industry would wake up and see what is happening.