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news conference report
ttglive.com
ETOA 2009
November 5-7 ■ London
Lee Hayhurst and Rob Gill report on last week’s annual
VAT.
European Tour Operators’ Association conference Call to speak up on Toms
OPERATORS have been urged to “get their act
together” to influence the future of the Tour
Operators’ Margin Scheme (Toms).
The Etoa conference was told the Treasury
would listen to ideas and problems relating to
Toms from those working in the travel industry.
The scheme is likely to be reviewed by the EU
when the Spanish government takes over the
presidency for the first six months of 2010.
David Bennett, a partner at accountants
Saffery Champness, said: “This is a real
opportunity, so let’s get our act together and tell
those making the decisions what we want.”
Olympics tourism fear
Several changes to Toms will be implemented
in the UK from January 1, 2010, which will mean
tour operators can no longer choose to opt in or
out of the scheme.
Bennett said this would mean the price of sell-
LONDON needs to host a series of spectacular because this was an alpha event, people would ing trips to schools and businesses would go up.
events alongside the Olympic Games to stop it turn up. We need to devise something spectacu- “If you are a supplier of travel to business, the
suffering a drop in tourism during 2012. lar that appeals to people independent of the price of what you sell will go up,” he said. “This
The European Tour Operators’ Association Olympics – a cultural Olympiad and other events. is because you will not be able to trade in a way
suggested non-Olympic events should be held in “Every city is unique and every Olympics is that facilitates VAT recovery by your client.”
London to lure visitors not attending the games. unique. I hope London will be a shining example
According to an Etoa study, previous Olympic that makes a great success of it. It’s important
cities saw tourism suffer during their host years. for the whole of the European industry.”
INTERNET.
There was also little evidence of any tourism Visit London dismissed Etoa’s report, saying
Bad websites ‘leak sales’
boom in the years after the event. its own research showed the games would create
Beijing, which hosted the Olympics last year, £1.5 billion in tourism revenue over 10 years. WEBSITES are “leaky baskets” that lose most
did particularly badly, with a 30% plunge in Chief executive Sally Chatterjee said: “It’s im- potential customers on the first page they look at.
arrivals in the month before the games and a possible to compare Olympic cities. We believe Giles Colborne, managing director of web
20% drop in the months after the event. the 2012 games will bring an influx of visitors. design firm CX Partners, said conversion rates
Etoa executive director Tom Jenkins said: “The “It will be one of the most exciting times in our online were “awful”, running at well under 10%
great mistake Beijing made was to assume that history and no one will want to miss out.” for most sites.
“I bet half the people who arrive at your web-
sites leave after looking at one page,” he said.
PACKAGE REGULATIONS.
cost of complying with the directive while “It’s like putting your worst customer services
consumers could assemble the same holidays person in charge of your largest channel.”
Plea for EC ‘light touch’ themselves. “We can’t have a regulatory system Colborne said studies in the US showed
that is mandatory for one group and optional for enhanced usability driven by a better under-
ETOA is pleading for “light-touch regulation” as other groups,” he said. “The web has appeared standing of how people use sites could increase
the European Commission seeks a replacement since PTD was drafted and we believe self-pack- their performance by more than 80%.
for the Package Travel Directive. The EC is due to aging will be covered in any new regulations.” Work that CX Partners had done with Island
unveil plans for regulating package holidays in Fairhurst said business would suffer if the EC Cruises’ website managed to treble online book-
April 2010, although any legislation is likely to did not adopt a “light touch” to regulating the ings of what was a complex product, he claimed.
take at least three years to come into effect. sale of holidays. “We want to keep the door open Sites had to exploit “persuasive windows” –
Etoa’s head of group tourism, Tim Fairhurst, for new entrants – we don’t want them strangled points in the buying process where the customer
said it was unfair that operators had to pay the at birth by an overabundance of regulation.” was most susceptible to committing, he said.
16 13.11.2009
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