p18 Columnist May 8 5/5/09 17:28 Page 18
news comment
ttglive.com
Derek Jones Kuoni
“When passing on FCO advice,
the main hurdle is often
persuading the customer
that a risk exists at all”
W
ith swine flu hopefully under They think I’m odd for enjoying the
control but still dominating the adventure of travel; I think they’re odd for
headlines, the travel industry is missing out on the opportunity.
once again trying to forecast the Since my mother discovered the joy of text,
impact of a global event on customer behaviour. she’s taken to sending me random warnings
We should bear in mind, though, that the about potential dangers that might cross my
British travelling public is famously resilient path: “STY AWY FRM THOSE FIRS IN OZ!’ and
when it comes to pressing ahead with its “DNT GO 2 MXCO!”
holiday plans. This leads me to think that my urge to travel
They will calmly brush aside the threat of might be my own small act of rebellion, designed
hurricanes, bush fires, mad cow disease, a to prove to a worrying mother that the world is
global flu pandemic – anything that stands in really a relatively safe place. I wonder if Marco
the way of the annual break. Polo’s parents were especially protective? Was
Anyone who’s ever been asked to advise a Columbus kept away from school if there was a
customer of a change to their holiday bit of a bug going round?
plans due to Foreign Office advice will Maybe I’m on to something? Could it be that
know that often the biggest the more protective the parents are, the more
hurdle is persuading the customer likely the child is to become a travel addict?
that the risk actually exists at all. If this holds true, then the travel industry can
So what drives this apparently look forward to many years of further growth.
unquenchable urge in some The more worried society becomes about the
people to travel? welfare of children, protecting them from all
My own experience suggests manner of exaggerated risk, the more those
it is not a universal quality. children will seek out travel adventures as
I was born in Liverpool, the they get older. Then again, it’s possible I
middle of three children, and have this theory the wrong way round.
while I set out travelling as a It’s quite possible that my own laid-back
teenager and have continued attitude to risk actually brought out this
with my wanderlust ever since, protective streak in my mother.
my elder sister has never Thinking back, if mobiles had been
been farther than Greece around 25 years ago I might never have
(and then only once). caught malaria in Kenya.
My younger brother also Just one short text and I would have
seems perfectly happy to been spared that fortnight in a Nairobi
holiday each year in the same hospital: “DNT 4GET THE TBLTS!”
north Wales seaside resort that we went to as
children more than 30 years ago. Derek Jones, distribution director, Kuoni
18 08.05.2009
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