THE feeding frenzy goes on. Those of us whose livelihood is tour operating watch in amusement as the doyens of our industry play the stock exchange for large sums of money.
I wonder whether they should concentrate more on improving the quality of their holidays rather than lining their pockets and engaging in mutual back slapping.
I wonder what administrative black holes there will be once the season gets going. The latest fashion now is to take on marketing people who have only worked in other industries to put a veneer on a product which really has not changed in a decade. It’s still the same ‘pile them high, sell them cheap’ philosophy in disguise. Just ask the reps. They’ll tell you whether anything has changed.
One thing we can be thankful for is that it seems the First Choice/Kuoni deal will be going through. For us down below, it means that Air 2000 will still be around rather than become a part of Airtours International, Flying Colours or Britannia.
So, we have four charter airlines rather than three, which is something to be thankful for in these hard times.
I must say it is the Government that has been made a fool of. This, in theory is a dynamic Labour Government looking after the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises which are responsible for creating employment in this country.
In practice, this administration has allowed the market leaders to increase their hold on the industry to such an extent that the public’s interest has been considerable harmed. Perhaps they feel that nothing needs to be done. That may well be the case and they are entitled to their opinion. However, on the transparency issue, the Government has been criminally negligent and I feel the independent sector whose interests have been harmed are entitled to some retribution. Let us ask for compensation for a change.
In the 15 months since December 1997, the Government has chosen not to do anything on such an important issue. During this period, the industry has changed out of all recognition and, from the customers’ point of view, to the worse. I really cannot think where there has been an improvement. The benefits of the consolidations that have taken place over the last year accrued to relatively few people.
Over the next few years, tourist revenues across the world will line fewer and fewer pockets. This will create unrest and instability in the destinations that will be exploited by the new generation of global players.
For years I have been telling my fellow operators that they shouldn’t put any trust in what the vertically integrated are saying to them and that one day the trust they put in the sweet words of the multiples will come back to haunt them. Well it’s happened.
The commission demands are unreasonable and unfair. It’s time we all came off the fence and stated openly that we market our wares only through agents who will genuinely support us and not seek to destroy our businesses by outrageous and unrealistic commission levels.
At Sunvil we have been doing this for years and enjoy a warm relationship with our agents. So, to all non-aligned operators I would say the time has come to either sell out to the big four or withdraw your brochures from multiples and concentrate on independents. You can no longer sit on the fence because you’ll die.