THOMSON has defended its Preferred Agent scheme after a leading independent retailer told a meeting the operator could not be trusted.
Martin Wellings, a director at 12-strong chain Personal Service Travel, said agents do not trust Thomson enough to hand over the names and addresses of customers – which is one of the demands on becoming a Preferred Agent – for fear of the operator using the information to then go direct.
Speaking at a meeting of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group in London, Wellings said: “I am very loathe to hand over the details of our customers, which we have built up over the last 10 years, to another company.
“Travel agents are traditionally wary about tour operators going direct and with good reason.
“I recently carried out a survey which revealed nearly 20% of tour operators offered discounts if customers booked direct. Because of that, I am going to guard my database jealously.”
Wellings added that Thomson has no need to hold the database itself.
“Local agents know their customers and can do the direct marketing itself. Thomson has no need to hold the information.”
Thomson head of direct and database marketing Deborah Merryfield stressed the operator had given a legal undertaking not to abuse the database.
“All material sent out to customers will be joint branded. This is not an attempt to go direct but to target different markets and actually drive business back into the travel agencies.
“We have the records of 6m customers but only 3m are up to date. The Preferred Agents scheme will enable us to bring the records up to date to start a relationship marketing programme which will be crucial in the next millennium.