21 January 2016

NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW Agents discuss the market on a Holiday Taxis’ ski trip. Lee Hayhurst reports 4

Terrorism tipped to fuel bookings through agents

The “black cloud” of terrorism that hangs over the industry this year could encourage more customers to book through agents for added reassurance.

Agents were upbeat about early bookings, but fear the impact of terrorist attacks could make the late season challenging. With customers snapping up

deals for popular hotspots such as Spain, destinations such as Turkey, which is proving more difficult to sell, may have to be discounted later on. Steve Endacott, Teletext

5 OTAs start offering low-deposit deals

Competition for early bookings is set to be more cut-throat than ever this year after online travel agents (OTAs) introduced low-deposit deals.

An arrangement with payments

firm Wex has allowed Atol Flight-Plus package agents to take deposits from as little as £49 per person while adhering to Civil Aviation Authority trust fund rules. The rules require agents who

dynamically package to place all customer money in a trust, even when it’s a booking with a low- cost carrier, which requires the whole fare to be paid up front.

Wex pays for the flight while the deposit is placed in trust. The OTA then repays Wex when the full amount is due from the customer. Similar to a short-term bridging

loan, the Wex deal is available on low-fee virtual debit cards agents use to pay for flights that incur lower charges from airlines. Among OTAs promoting

low deposits are Alpharooms, dnata Travel-owned Sunmaster, Sunshine.co.uk and Teletext Holidays. Andrew Bigger, head of XML commercial at Alpharooms, said: “Everyone is offering payment

6 travelweekly.co.uk 21 January 2016

“Everyone is offering payment deals at the moment to encourage people to book early”

deals at the moment to encourage people to book early.” OTA bosses were not concerned

about the risk of cancellations, saying deposits of around £200 are high enough to secure bookings from family groups who tend to book early. Sunmaster managing director

Paul Edwards said: “There is always the question of financial risk, but it’s something you have got to do now.” Teletext Holidays non-executive chairman Steve Endacott said the move meant tour operators no longer have the peaks family market to themselves. “It’s removing a reason people

have not to book,” he said. For destinations that see high cancellation levels after terror attacks agents are either not offering deposits or are asking for

higher downpayments. › Travel Weekly Business, page 78

Holidays non-executive chairman, said: “Terrorism is the black cloud that hangs over all of us. “It could push more people

to high street travel agencies or phone booking because they are nervous about making that click. Online it’s too easy to hesitate. “It’s going to be an interesting

lates. You will have sold out of what people want and have left what people don’t want.” Steve Campion, managing

director of Holiday Discount Centre, said: “There is latent demand coming through. It was

suppressed before Christmas because of the Paris situation. “But economic indicators are

pretty good: unemployment is low, real earnings are going up, the euro is down and fuel is cheap.” But, agreeing with Endacott, he

added: “Terrorism is the big risk.” Sue Reid, deputy general manager of Midcounties Co-operative, said customers had returned to booking early

following a slowdown after the Paris terrorist attack in November. She said that prior to that attack,

Spain was up 31% year on year and Midcounties had feared January would be a struggle because customers were booking so early. However, Reid said January was

going well, but warned: “Because it [Spain] is so well booked it will be interesting to see what overbookings will be like.”

Turkey bookings are weaker following last week’s Istanbul bomb

5 STORIES HOT

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