ttglive.com
Hays opens its 44th agency
HAYS TRAVEL will unveil the 44th shop in its retail chain on Saturday when a new store in North Shields opens its doors. Sales director Jane Schumm said North Shields – which is in Hays’ north-east heartland – had long been marked as a potential location for a Hays shop. “We believe in the future of retail shops and are hoping for more expansion within 2011,” she said. The manager of the shop will be Lucy Nailen, who has previously worked for Newcastle-upon- Tyne based agency Dawson & Sanderson, and First Choice. She will be joined by existing Hays Travel staff. Meanwhile Royal Caribbean has assured other agents they will not be disadvantaged by a deal the line has with Hays Travel Independence Group. TTGreported last week how agents at the Hays IG conference were told deals the group was ne- gotiating with Royal Caribbean would play a key role in the group’s push into cruise next year. Royal Caribbean UK and Ireland Jo Rzymowska said the company was looking forward to help- ing Hays IG members grow their cruise sales. But she assured agents in other consortia that
Hays IG members were not being offered “prefer- ential terms” and commercially competitive deals would be given to all key trade partners.
Kate and Wills is perfect timing
THE TIMING of the royal wedding next year has created a great selling opportunity for agents as customers will be able to have an 11-day break by taking only three days off work. The announcement of the special bank holiday for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Mid- dleton on April 29 means the Easter four-day weekend from April 22 to 25 will be followed by another four-day break as the Friday of the wed- ding is followed by the spring bank holiday on Monday May 2.
Abta has urged customers to take full advan- tage of the opportunity and predicted that royal wedding-themed locations could benefit, includ- ing St Andrews where the couple met and Kenya, where they got engaged. Meanwhile cruise lines moved quickly to
reassure customers that they would be able to watch the wedding at sea.
news
Worldchoice unveils umbrella ‘Atol Angel’
Chris Gray. WORLDCHOICE IS to launch a group Atol that will allow members to carry on dynamically packag- ing without taking on extra liabilities once the system is reformed. The “Atol Angel” scheme has been piloted with
three individual members for the past few months, but will be extended to all members on December 7. The consortium decided to set up the scheme
because 80% of its 400-odd members were doing some dynamic packaging without an Atol, and following the case argued by Travel Republic that they did not need one because they were split contracting. The proposed “Flights Plus” reform set to come in next year will end that loop-hole and mean that all agents selling a flight plus any other holiday component will need an Atol. Without the Atol Angel, these members would have had to start administering the Atol Protection Contribution or provide a bond, or stop dynamic packaging and sell as an agent – meaning they would lose some of their business. The arrangement means that if any supplier used by members fails, Worldchoice will take on the responsibility of finding an alternative or re- ■Read Nicole Eaves’ new column, p18
funding the customer. It has never before taken on this liability and the move needed the specific agreement of the CAA, which was secured follow- ing months of negotiation. Worldchoice is understood to have insured itself against such company collapses by taking out supplier failure cover as a consortium. It already used the term Atol Angel to describe technology that showed members if they needed an Atol for a particular sale, but it has now been used to refer to the new group arrangement. The scheme mirrors arrangements already in place at the Freedom Travel Group and Hays Travel Independence Group. One Worldchoice member, Nicole Eaves, direc- tor of Garstang Travel, said it would give mem- bers confidence to dynamically package next year regardless of the complexity of the Atol reforms. A TTA Worldchoice spokeswoman refused to comment, but said it would update members soon. The Travel Trust Association is also understood to be close to resolving its dispute with the CAA over whether its T-Atol scheme is “unlawful”, as was stated during the Travel Republic court case last year.
CHEQUE-IN: East Midlands airport’s check-in hall was the venue for the regional BBC Children in Need programme this year when staff joined in a live pantomime, bake-off and “hot car wash” by firefighters. The activities raised a total of £31,500. Interview with East Midlands managing director Brad Miller, p22
26.11.2010 05
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