NEWS — HOT STORIES 2
The children’s mother, Sharon Wood, with her husband Paul
Operator prepares to send Q&A to third-party agents
Ian Taylor
Thomas Cook was poised to send a Q&A on its handling of the deaths of two children to third-party agents this week, as the company struggled under the weight of hostile reaction. The company confirmed
it would pay £1.5 million to children’s charity Unicef on Monday following an inquest verdict last week of “unlawful killing” of Robert and Christianne Shepherd. The children died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a bungalow at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel in Corfu in 2006. Chief executive Peter Fankhauser denied the group had profited from the deaths after parents Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood said: “What parent would not be heartbroken by a multibillion- pound organisation making money from their children’s deaths?” Fankhauser, who apologised
to the family “for all they have gone through”, said: “Thomas Cook has not in any way profited. We brought a claim against the hotelier for breaching their contract to provide safe
accommodation to our customers, which was decided in our favour.” The company said it received £3 million in compensation and returned half to the insurance company which underwrote a £6 million legal bill. Cook was poised to issue results
for the six months to March on Wednesday as the Financial Times accused it of “paying too close attention to its lawyers”. Yet leisure
analyst Mark Brumby of Langton Capital said the tragedy need not cause lasting harm to Cook’s business. “It’s a dreadful tragedy, but I don’t think the company did anything wrong in a business sense,” he said. “Provided Cook can reassure us they have taken steps to see it can’t happen again, they can probably halt the damage.” John McEwan, a former Thomas
Cook managing director, said: “The situation is recoverable, but not by not offering to comment.”
Election and Easter have a mixed impact on sales
Lee Hayhurst in Bodrum
The general election had a mixed impact on holiday sales, according to agent members of Advantage Travel Partnership. Jackie Steadman, director of TravelTime World, said the first
quarter of the year had been positive, with sales up 23% year on year, but bookings in April had “fallen off a cliff”. “The election definitely had an effect,” said Steadman, who also
believed the early Easter had an impact. Helen Tustin, general manager of Regal Travel, described the market as “patchy”, but said there had been a marked improvement since the election. Leicester-based Millington Travel said April had “beaten all expectations”, although it had prepared for it to be “awful” based on data from the 2010 election. Co-owner Nick Bland said: “When we were looking ahead for 2015, our biggest worry was April and May, but April did really well for us.” Advantage members gathered at Mark Warner’s Sea Garden Resort in Bodrum, Turkey, for the group’s annual conference last weekend, where keynote speaker Jeremy Paxman spoke about the election.
Advantage reported that 51 members were involved in a direct
marketing programme which generated 4,265 bookings, equating to £9 million of revenue in 2013-14. A January peaks campaign this year as part of the same
programme generated 2,000 bookings worth £4 million, and a door drop to 713,000 households secured 1,345 new customers and £3 million in revenue. A June door drop will go to 517,000 households. Latest figures from analyst GfK show bookings for summer 2015
up 3% year on year to mid-May . ❯ Advantage Travel Partnership conference, page 14
21 May 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 5 3
Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman speaks to Advantage agents in Bodrum
“I don’t think
Thomas Cook did anything wrong”
PICTURE: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/REX SHUTTERSTOCK
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