Your letters


There was an angry reaction this week after ex-Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick told the Aito conference he would not sell via agents if he set up a new company


Perhaps if Carrick saw the amount of hard work agents put into getting


bookings, the amount of free marketing we do for operators and hoteliers, he may actually understand why we get frustrated when we hear things like this (“Carrick vows not to use agents in any new travel venture,” ttglive.com). Strong trusting partnerships are what this


industry needs, and operators and agents that are willing to provide this are going to be the ones that will succeed. Nicholas McKay managing director, Travel Designers


Further to Carrick’s comment – “your brand should not be too homespun but


not too glossy as you need to appear genuine and honest” – I don’t think “appearing” genuine and honest is any good. It is about putting that ethos into practice and it is up to customers to decide whether you are genuine and honest. Saffron Tennant


personal travel counsellor, Travel Counsellors


Carrick will be qualified to dispel the usefulness of agents once he is suc- cessfully running his own online travel business. Amanda Reed


international product manager, Global Travel


travel trade gazette


uk & ireland edition Issue 2937


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28 26.11.2010


With that attitude Carrick’s “new” venture would be doomed to fail.


We for one will be blacklisting him and would hope others will follow suit. Watch him change his attitude when his back is against the wall! Derek Barnes managing director, Liberty Travel Consultants


RICHARD CARRICK REPLIES: For the record, I never did any “vowing” to “avoid” travel agents. What I said was, if you were setting up a specialist Aito-type business from scratch today: ■ Wholesale travel trade distribution would be prohibitively expensive in terms of brochure distribution, commission and sales support costs. ■Working with the trade would mean a heavy outlay in cash upfront in the selling year. ■ An Aito-type businesses would have to be selective about which agents to work with. ■ Investors in any such business would put a higher value on one with direct distribution and “ownership” of its customer data. I have enormous respect for UK agents, have


worked with them for 35 years and have had responsibility for a multiple travel agent. No offence was intended, but if you stand on stage and try to stimulate debate, you have to put up with different interpretations of what is said.


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Credit card companies’ pay delay threat makes sense


It has long amazed me that, under consumer credit legislation, credit card companies have to effectively underwrite holidays for companies that fail (TTG, November 19). Why should they? For card companies whose customers pay off their bills off on a monthly basis, and whose only income is from us merchants, this hardly makes economic sense. If their customers pay huge sums in interest, then maybe I could understand that this might be a viable proposition. As an agent I give all my clients the option to


pay by debit card, cheque or cash. I explain why credit card payments attract a surcharge. For those with positive cash flow it is a no-brainer as they have cover under other schemes. More and more clients go for the cheaper option. Society should ask itself: “can we afford to allow people who cannot pay their way to destroy the lives of those who can and do?” If this threat from credit card companies comes into force, that is exactly what will have happened. I would rather lose a few clients who can’t


afford holidays than have my business ruined by credit card companies trying to recover huge debts that they have been forced to accept.


Ros Wolfarth director, Anders Travel


WHAT DO YOU THINK? The deadline for letters is 10am on Tuesday. We need your name, job title and company address. Please limit letters to 250 words maximum. We reserve the right to edit. Email: ttgletters@ttglive.com


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