p4 News jun19 17/6/09 21:45 Page 4
news
19.06.2009
School holidays
HWT agents’ fury
at management
discount fears
FORMER Harvey World Travel agents have
C
O
complained about the handling of the failure of
STO
VER
the chain, saying they learned about its collapse
Chris Gray.
sult of lower sales margins.
R
Y
from the media and were unable to tell clients
NEXT weekend could see the start of Agents backed Bowen’s as- what was happening.
“massive discounting” as operators find they sessment of unsold capacity. Another 75 Harvey World staff were due to
have large amounts of stock left to sell with Julia Lo Bue-Said, Advantage com- be made redundant this week as the remaining
just a month until the school holidays. mercial director, said August was now about 12 shops were closed after administrators failed
Alan Bowen, of the Association of Atol 65% sold, compared with 80% normally. to find a buyer.
Companies, said the coming week would She said prices had already been They follow about 80 who lost their jobs
be a trial of nerve between operators “tweaked” downwards but customers after the chain went into administration two
with unsold stock and consumers who were still booking about three weeks weeks ago.
were booking later than ever this year. before departure compared with six Agents who lost their jobs in the first batch of
Operators who had taken full or to eight weeks in previous years. redundancies have since contacted TTG, angry
part-aircraft charter allocations for the However, some operators were about the communication from managers about
summer holidays would normally be managing to protect margins the failure.
fully sold by last weekend, but many because hoteliers were dropping One, Sarah Birch, said she was told nothing by
had large proportions left to sell. Next their prices. managers and the first she heard of the collapse
weekend would be the time to decide Speakers at this weeks’ Barclays was by reading ttglive.com on Monday, June 8.
to slash prices to shift the stock, he said. Travel Forum were more upbeat Another, Amy Atkinson, said what upset her
Bowen claimed the failure of about the state of the lates market. most was not being given time to call clients and
Scottravel, which specialised in Turkey, Dermot Blastland, managing di- tell them what was happening.
demonstrated the problems facing operators as rector of Tui Travel UK and Ireland, said demand “The last thing we wanted was for them to find
Turkey was doing relatively well this year. for June and July had been “off the scale” and out from a sign on the door or a news article in the
“There is still a considerable amount of capac- the premium market was holding up although paper. Many of our repeat clients had also become
ity in most markets and soon people will start to the bottom end was struggling. friends and we feel like we have let them down in
get worried. If one person starts to discount Steve Byrne, managing director of Travel not keeping them informed,” she said.
others have no choice and have to follow.” Counsellors, said lates were up 20-25% this year
The warning comes amid fears that there and the last few months had been “positive”
could a string of failures in the autumn as a re- despite longer-term difficulties.
Abta relaxes refund law: Abta operators will
no longer have to provide proof of payment when
Unpackaged £2.5m debt at collapse
an Abta agent fails in order to get a refund.
The association said this will save operators
UNPACKAGED HOLIDAYS left debts of over £2.5 Steven Freudmann is a former director of huge amounts of time because they will not
million when it went into administration in March. Unpackaged Holidays and his brother Tony is a have to call customers to persuade them to
Administrators’ documents estimate that current director. TTG understands creditors are send in bank statements or other proof of
claims from unsecured creditors will exceed still hoping a date for a meeting is agreed. having paid the agent for their holiday.
£2.5 million, but administrators do not expect to Tony Freudmann’s travel agency Majestic Historically, the claim would not have been
be able to pay the claims. Travel is listed as owing Unpackaged £38,000. considered without it.
The unsecured creditors include Tui Travel- (TTG June 12). Freudmann said Majestic was still Chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “We hope
owned Hotelbeds, which is owed £1,008,363. operating “at a low level” with a call centre this will remove the perception from members
The documents state that several creditors taking calls from previous customers. that the claims procedure was overly rigid.”
had asked for a creditors’ meeting to question But he said its future was under review, and it Abta said the July 1 rule change would mean
“current and former” officers of the company may become an online agency. operators’ credit control departments should
but added that the officers had “indicated that have less work and more claims should be paid.
they would not attend”. ■ Freudmann ITT election report, p14
04 19.06.2009
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