When is a specialist not a specialist and when is it a ‘brand?’ The biggest threat that AITO companies face is not now from the McDonald’s and Burger King’s of the tour operating world but from the specialists the market leaders have purchased.
Manos was swallowed up by Airtours last week and we hear that the whole company is being moved to Brighton to join the Panorama stable.
I can understand why this has been done – it is pointless buying a company and then maintaining two sets of identical overheads.
But in this particular case, it seems that all the staff will disappear too. Only a handful will move away from London. Manos, as we have known it, will cease to exist.
All that character, all the expertise will be cut away at a stroke. Airtours has bought a name. It has taken out another, albeit smaller, competitor and now have a ‘brand’ not a living, breathing specialist.
The other day I saw an advertisement in the trade press from another former AITO member, Headwater Holidays, now owned by Thomson, looking for a hotel contracts manager.
All of us know that this job has traditionally been that of the owner of the company or staff member who has grown up with the firm so as to be almost indistinguishable from the owner.
Headwater is expanding here and there and already, in the eyes of us purists, the transformation from a specialist to a brand is well on the way.
I remember being admonished by Graham Simpson, the former owner of the Simply Group, that I was out of touch with our overseas suppliers because my partner’s son had responsibility for overseas contracts. He seemed to ignore the fact that Dudley’s been doing this job for the last 15 years but it shows how much importance Graham Simpson attached to this task.
To us observers, the news coming out of the Thomson group as reported in the press also points to the fact that the new management is beginning to realise that they must rationalise and overheads must, where possible, be shaved.
It would be ridiculous if Thomson did not act in this fashion but it is this very necessity that will destroy the individual existence of each and every one of their specialist companies. They will slowly become brands and will be recognised as such.
This is inevitable because, without the owners watching every detail, worrying about adverse comment, motivation will slowly disappear.
The question is whether this matters to the public? Michael East has often told me itdoesn’t. Well, let’s wait and see. I would argue that, in that small sector of the market where we true specialists operate, it is imperative that the owner has hands on control.
The events of the last few weeks are beginning to prove my point and all of us remaining specialists should be very relieved as a result of the noises coming out of Greater London House from the new regime.
The year, with a few exceptions, has started flat. The discounting and last minute offers, on a scale and price never seen before, will affect all of us.
But we have trained the public to buy too much and too long for nothing and it will be hard to wean it away. What we do know, however, is brand managers come and go but the owners are there until they sell or die.