NEWS — HOT STORIES 4
SPAA president Martin takes swipe at operator discounts and agent incentives
abolished online discounting. Martin added: “The leisure market margins are as frightening as the cruise market’s: to make £68 on an £8,000 booking is ludicrous.”
He also encouraged more operators to target Scotland to make the market more competitive, though he warned against pricing that could force rivals to remove routes or cut jobs. Martin, who called for an end to discounting at
last year’s dinner, also used his speech to question agent incentives. In particular, he took issue with voucher-based offers and “owners trying to control their agents in pushing certain products”. Martin, owner of Jimmy Martin Travel, said his
Rebekah Commane in Glasgow
The president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association has heaped fresh criticism on operators who prioritise direct sales, insisting business via agents can earn more for both retailers and operators. Speaking at the SPAA’s annual dinner in Glasgow
last week, Jimmy Martin singled out Tui Travel, which he claimed was undermining its own strategy with online discounting. Saying Tui had “long lost touch with agents”, Martin
asked: “You may be 90% in-house sales but what are you paying for it with ridiculous discounts online?” He said agents could sell at a much higher rate, earning more for the operator, if it
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own experience at a previous company showed that staff began to “sell for themselves rather than the business”, resulting in the wrong holidays being sold and costing the company “a small fortune”. Instead, he said, staff needed to be paid the right
“Margins are frightening: to make £68 on an £8,000 sale is ludicrous”
wages to ensure that such incentives were not a priority.
Martin concluded that what the trade needed was
all sectors of the industry “working together to make successful, long-term partnerships”.
Royal creates fund to boost Scottish sales Lucy Huxley
Royal Caribbean is to make a pot of money available to Scottish agents to help them get on the first rung of the ladder of selling cruise. UK managing director Stuart Leven said the Scottish Agents’ Development Fund would be available to his team in Scotland to help agents for whom cruise is not part of their primary sales mix. “We’re not talking about the big
guys,” he said. “We’re talking about the smaller ones who need help getting their feet on the first rung of the ladder.” Leven said Royal had years of experience of what works and what doesn’t with agents targeting new-to-cruise sales. “We generally work with agents who are already booking cruise, but this is about
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travelweekly.co.uk — 5 March 2015
working with those who currently don’t,” he added. Leven declined to reveal how much Royal would be
investing in the initiative, saying each application to the fund would be assessed to determine how much support it would need. In a keynote speech at the 85th Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association annual dinner in Glasgow, Leven said the scheme could be rolled out to other areas if it proved a success. Asked why the initiative was being launched in Scotland, Leven said: “There is a big opportunity in Scotland. Royal Caribbean hasn’t spent as much time developing [the market there] as it should have.
“We’re strong in England and Ireland, but not
as strong as we could be and would like to be in Scotland, so this is a first step to changing that.” ❯ Clia unveils new-to-cruise initiatives, page 10
MORE HOT STORIES
Jimmy Martin is critical of voucher- based offers
“We’re helping
smaller agents get on the first rung of the ladder”
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