| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 17/04/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 10 |
| Copyright: Other |
UK quality just sells us short
The C&NTouristic bid for Thomson is far from surprising and, in my opinion, only the start of what could become a majority foreign-owned tour operator industry in the UK.For many years, British tour operators have failed to maximise their profits by heavily discounting from products that are already in a competitively priced state.
It is common knowledge that German customers pay significantly more for their holidays than do their British counterparts.
The result of this simple fact is that foreign consumers generally occupy better quality accommodation than British clients and this results in fewer customer complaints, thus more satisfied clients are prepared to pay more money for better quality holidays.
It does not take a genius to work out that foreign operators earn a larger profit for every holiday sold than British operators.
While foreign competitors have seen their bank balance swell, our operators have seen their balances correspondingly shrink.
If foreign operators do acquire more British firms (and this looks increasingly likely) they will no doubt increase the cost of holidays here, progressively, because this is where they see their opportunity to make a profit.
The British public are still very bargain conscious and ironically this is purely the fault of collective British tour operators since they control the product and how it is sold.
If there are to be any major British travel companies left in five years time, it is imperative they act now and in concert by reducing capacity, providing better quality accommodation, ceasing discounting, increasing holiday prices gradually and looking to profit margins and not turnover, after all, our foreign competitors have grown in strength doing exactly this over the years.
Gerry Standley, principal, Cathedral Travel, Co Durham