TRAVEL agents on the South Coast – including Bath Travel – are refusing to sell Priceright’s Bournemouth departures to Cyprus after claiming it was launched too late in the season to be viable.
Barnet-based Priceright was told of the no-sell policy after clients contacted its reservations department to make bookings.
Priceright aviation director Themis Drakou said:”They said agents refused to take the reservation. Apparently retailers don’t seem to believe the flights will go ahead. I can assure the trade that the Bournemouth programme will proceed as planned and it is selling well. I don’t know why anyone is doubting it.”
Drakou said he will write to branch managers of agencies who refuse to sell the product in future. “What concerns us is how many sales we have lost through this,” he added.
Bath Travel joint managing director Stephen Bath admitted his 50-odd branch chain is not supporting the Cyprus specialist’s Bournemouth programme as it was launched too late in the season.
“Priceright only started selling the flight in January when more than a quarter of its programme has probably been sold,” said Bath.
“If the flights get pulled because of low sales, which has to be a possibility, it’s the agent who gets the blame.”
He said the holidays would be sold “only if customers demanded it”.
Bath added the flights were also competition for his own tour operating programme – Palmair – from Bournemouth. Priceright’s Euro Cypria 174-seat Airbus A320 will depart every Wednesday from May.