You wouldn’t believe the rumpus caused by our story on ABTApresident Steven Freudmann’s expenses (Travel Weekly January 27).
Some thought they were over the top, some criticised us for printing the story. To be fair to Freudmann, he didn’t complain about the story because he knows the ABTA president will always be in the spotlight and when an ABTATravel Agents’Council member attacks the amount of association money being spent, it is in the interest of our readers to know about it.
I would be reluctant to criticise Freudmann until I knew more. After all, journalists have been known to spend a pound or two on expenses and it does follow that the more work you do, the more company money you are likely to spend.
But agents can expect the president to be open and accountable and TACmembers have a right to know where the association’s money is going.
Meanwhile, a word on the Airtours/Advantage tie-up. Astonishingly, Advantage was reluctant to give us much information on its members’ vote because it was unhappy about the press coverage of the deal.
Advantage holding back information isn’t going to stop us from finding it out and, anyway, over the past few months we have simply reflected the views of its members.
Our view is that there are many plus points about the deal, but it has been handled badly.
Jeremy Skidmore, editor