NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4
Tailor Made boss opens Discount Holiday Store
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
Welsh miniple Tailor Made Travel is rebranding one of its branches as it trials a “no-frills” concept store on the high street.
The Pontypridd agency has been
rebranded Discount Holiday Store by Tailor Made Travel, with an orange fascia designed to promote “great-value holiday deals”. In a shift away from a traditional
travel agency, owner Simon Morgan wantes to create
“a cross between an Apple store and a mobile phone shop”. He has challenged staff to
design the shop’s interior and will create “workstations” instead of traditional desks. “There are no rules,” he said. “It
might be sofas and laptops or a high bar with interactive touchscreens. “We don’t want clients to feel
they are sitting in front of their bank manager. It’s key to sit side by side, but no one [in the trade] has quite mastered it yet.” Digital screens will show offers and the agency is considering free
Discount Holiday Store in Pontypridd. Inset: Owner Simon Morgan
5 STORIES HOT
in-store vending machines. If successful, other branches of
Tailor Made Travel or Regal Travel, acquired in May, could switch to the new brand in “suitable” locations. “We are reinventing the high
street to be very different where the market is more cut-throat,” he said. “This store was not doing particularly well for Tailor Made Travel and I want to turn it into the ‘Apple-meets-mobile-phone-store’ of the travel industry.”
Staff will use MacBooks and be paid on a new margin-based system to create a high-sales environment. There are five staff, all from within the group. Morgan said market research and customer surveys showed high demand in Pontypridd for mainstream holidays as he takes on Tui and Thomas Cook with the “aggressive” strategy. The miniple, which owns 14 agencies, usually sells luxury, tailor-made holidays and cruises.
5 Olympic trumpets new £59 deposits
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
Olympic Holidays is offering some of the lowest deposits in the specialist market in a bid to capture more early 2019 sales.
The Greece, Cyprus and Canaries specialist has reduced deposits on most holidays to £59, undercutting mainstream rival Jet2holidays by £1 on its headline deposit. Tui and Thomas Cook have deposits from £50 and zero respectively. The change reduces many of Olympic’s deposits by as much as
£91. The operator is licensed to carry 220,000 passengers a year and has expanded to cover Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Chief executive Clare Tobin said it was “positive news” for agents, adding the operator felt “comfortable” cutting deposits as it has a low cancellation rate. The offer will run until January 31. “It means we are in line with competitors with low deposits and will encourage early bookings for summer 2019,” she said. “We need to be competitive and keep up the momentum for early bookings.” Agents welcomed the move.
6
travelweekly.co.uk 6 September 2018
“It means we’re in line with competitors with low deposits and will spur early bookings”
Gemma Antrobus, managing director of Haslemere Travel, said: “It will give agents a little extra help in securing bookings if the deposit is lower.” Samantha Briggs, of Avista Travel in Clitheroe, added: “Low deposits do help.” There was, however, no indication
the move would trigger a shift to lower deposits by other destination
specialists. Aito chairman Derek Moore said specialists were not generally price-led. Around 60% of Olympic’s sales in the past year have been for ‘Flexi’ packages using third-party airlines. These carried a £150 deposit, or £89 with Thomas Cook or Tui flights. The deposit for these packages is now £59. Olympic’s charter flight
package holidays, which carried a £49 deposit, made up about 35% of business. Deposits on these packages have gone up by £10 to £59, as have deposits on accommodation-only bookings.
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