“It has happened at a good time of year as everybody is thinking about their Christmas shopping rather than holidays” ROCHELLE TURNER, WHICH? TRAVEL


TRADE REACTION


Agents rallying to Cook’s cause


Sophie Griffiths


INDEPENDENT AGENTS have rallied around Thomas Cook in the wake of its financial crisis. Despite reports of numerous queries and concerns from worried customers, agents said they would continue to support the travel giant. Helen Hawke, partner at Newells


Travel in Truro, said about a third of customers coming into the shop over the last three days had voiced concerns about booking with Cook, but Hawke said she still had “every confidence” in Cook holidays. “We’ve told all those that were worried that there’s no way Cook would be allowed to go out of business. I don’t think they’re going anywhere and I’ve been telling my customers that.” Holiday With Us in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, had also received a number of enquiries since it emerged that Cook was in financial difficulty. “It’s not people who have booked with


AGENTS SPLIT 50/50


TTG POLL


WE ASKED YOU WHETHER YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE STILL BUYING THOMAS COOK HOLIDAYS...


■51% said customers were still interested in booking with the tour operator ■ 49% said their clients were staying away


Cook who are calling, but people who want to book a holiday; they’re telling us not to use Cook,” Florence Cliss said. “But it still has the best prices, and the price always wins,” she added. Helder Lemos, owner of Essex- based Gallivant Travel said he had been surprised by the number of customers who had confused Thomas Cook with Thomson. “People are confused about the


two – we’ve not had any calls from those who have booked Cook but we had a few who had booked with Thomson who wanted to check that their holiday was ok,” he said. “We would have confidence in selling Cook products and we wouldn’t like to see it fail,” he added. Meanwhile, Advantage added that


sales for Cook were up year-on-year last week, and leisure director Julia Lo Bue-Said said she believed members would support the firm. “The importance of the trade has been shown again – they’re the ones who are out there reassuring the customers,” she commented.


WOULD YOU THOMAS COOK IT?


TTG hit the streets to ask the public what they thought of the Cook crisis and how it affects them...


DAN MAPSTONE 31, CARPENTER “I have booked with Cook in the past but I


wouldn’t book with them at the moment. I’d be too scared that I would lose my holiday. I know they’re saying that it’s ok to book with them, but you never know that – you can never believe that it’s going to be ok after what happened with the other travel firms that went under.”


NEIL ACKER, 43, POLICEMAN “I would book with them, I don’t see why


not. As long as a company is Abta or Atol-protected, that’s all that matters. That’s what I always look for when booking a holiday, and I know that Cook is protected.”


SARAH CUTFORTH, 47, FREELANCE JOURNALIST


“I wouldn’t exactly be


putting them first on my list – they would be way down if I


was enquiring about holidays. But I don’t think I would be put off totally – I would book with them in future.”


DAVE SPOONER, 56, TRADE UNIONIST


“I’m a bit confused by


it all, with all the press reports. I’m not really sure what’s going on with them, but I don’t think it would make any difference to me booking a holiday with them. I don’t think they’re going to collapse immediately. I would research it a bit more, but I think I’d be happy to book with them in the future.”


FLORENCE DONAVAN, 40, PLAY SPECIALIST


“I wouldn’t book with them after the publicity they’ve had. I would be fearful that they might go under. Even though the banks have bailed them out, they might still go under. Your holiday is so important, you don’t want to risk that.”


Comment Rochelle Turner, head of research, Which? Travel


“We had quite a few people calling our helpline last week about Thomas Cook. It wasn’t in the tens of hundreds of people but there were steady numbers. “Most of the people contacting us had vouchers for holidays or wedding gift vouchers, so we went through their options with them. “If the company had failed, nearly


everybody should have been covered by Atol – it was only if you booked


flight-only via the website that you would not be protected by Atol. “They now seem to


have got their funding so it has all quietened down. It would have


been a disaster for the CAA if the company had failed, and it’s interesting that David Cameron wanted a report on what was going


on as it could have cost the government a lot of money.


“It has happened at a good time of year as everybody is thinking about their Christmas shopping rather than


holidays. As long as nothing else goes wrong with Cook, then most people are going to probably forget about what happened last week.”


• Thomas Cook secures £200 million in funding • Cameron asks for report on Thomas Cook • with banks as trading ‘deteriorates’ • Read these stories and more on ttgdigital.com


01.12.2011 11


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