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Letter: Norwegian growth means reduced seat pitch Our new 56-seat Premium cabin gives more customers the chance to enjoy an enhanced long-haul travel experience. Premium passengers will still benefit from more than a metre of legroom in spacious leather seating on our newest 787s, while also receiving complimentary lounge access and fast track at most airports.
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Travelweekly.co.uk.
16
travelweekly.co.uk 8 March 2018
CHASE BURNS senior PR manager, UK and Ireland, Norwegian
4830 4864 Group events manager Helen Bush 4887 4849 4877 4805
4878 4869 4883 4391
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07766 911526 4871 4860 4859
Production Art/production editor Flora Ioannou 4856 4858 4857 4842 4879
Senior subeditor Stephanie Krahn Production manager Nick Cripps
Oh dear, Abta’s expectations of minimum Abta travel agency experience seems to be going out of the window. ALAN BOWEN
2
Well, this has caused a bit of a stir! New entrants in any industry need to disrupt to gain a foothold, and homeworking companies are not new to travel. Is it not for the market to compete against new competition by differentiating service rather than stamping its feet? SIMON CROSS Travel Weekly welcomes an InteleTravel response
Amie Keeley
amie.keeley@
travelweekly.co.uk
Training on how to highlight Foreign Office (FCO) advice and answer difficult questions about destination safety has been launched for frontline agents.
Abta’s online training, created in partnership with the FCO, uses real-life examples from shop agents and call centre staff. Guidelines for agents on how
to make FCO website information clear and visible online and in print are also included. The training states travel consultants must make customers aware of travel advice and tell customers where it can be found. An animation shows scenarios
Cook’s zero deposits are not an industry first
Story: Thomas Cook unveils ‘zero deposit’ payment plan Is travel going full circle? We used to offer this over 20 years ago at Co-op Travelcare and it worked well. In the current ‘blame culture’ environment, I’m not sure whether it will be as much of a success.
CRAIG LEWIS
Norwegian: Our seat pitch is still spacious
Royal: Chances rise for ex-UK Quantum ship
in which customers are enquiring about holidays to Turkey and Egypt and advises what to say. In the examples, the agent tells the customer to check the FCO advice to decide if they are comfortable travelling there. Last year, the inquest into the deaths of 30 Britons in Sousse in 2015 raised questions about the industry’s role in advising and protecting customers on holiday
Abta members confidently steer their customers towards FCO travel advice and this will help their customers to travel with confidence.”
Members can access the training
on Abta’s ‘Knowledge Zone’ at
abta.com/abtaknowledgezone. The association will also host
an event in London on March 20 about communicating FCO advice
to customers.
abta.com/events
American homeworking group InteleTravel has applied for an Abta licence following interest from “thousands” of potential UK agents.
InteleTravel gives recruits, who
are not required to have industry experience, the chance to be agents “full-time, part-time or as a hobby”. It offers access to its booking
system and does not set sales quotas. It currently has 15,000 contracted agents in the US. Training includes weekly
Letter: Royal’s Spectrum plan is another snub for the UK With four Quantum Class ships (Quantum, Anthem, Ovation and Spectrum) soon to be in the fleet, our chances of attracting this class of ship to the UK only increase. In the meantime, Spectrum of the Seas has been specifically designed for guests in China and the Asia-Pacific region, and will best serve us sailing there.
webinars, conference calls and destination events, and its homeworkers get personalised websites and business cards. James Ferrara, president of
InteleTravel, said there had been “several thousand” applications to join the group in the UK. “I’m thrilled with our reception,” he said. “We bring new people into the industry with new market share. We are not trying to lure existing agents from other agencies. I hope we are welcomed with friendly competition.”
homeworkers has proved to be a successful approach for UK agency The Travel Franchise, a division of Not Just Travel. InteleTravel, founded in 1992, said its agents earn between 70%-80% of the commission paid by operators, which the group negotiates at rates of 14%-28%. Homeworkers pay £142 to sign
up and £32 per month. About 30 potential InteleTravel
agents attended Clia’s Cruise360 event in Copenhagen in September. Andy Harmer, Clia’s senior
vice-president, membership, said: “If they are new to travel, Clia is an obvious partner as they will receive training. Welcoming people from other industries gives travel a new dimension.”
1 March 2018
travelweekly.co.uk 5
TWE_010318_005.indd 5
BEN BOULDIN, associate vice-president and managing director UK and Ireland, Royal Caribbean
TWEETS THIS WEEK
Elite Travel Group @elitetravelgrp Thank you to all those who battled the wintry weather to attend our 2017 Elite Awards last night and congratulations to the winners!
Gemma Pinder @gemma_pinder Brilliant morning on the @T2News Perth fam with @SegwayToursWA – fantastic experience!
conference kittie @conferencekitti Someone needs to tell Magnus in the @bookingcom advert to put his helmet on or his insurance will be invalid if he hurts himself.
QUOTE OF THE
WEEK
“BA is not helping small agents. If you are doing hundreds of seats on BA, are you going to be able to
compete? It’s a very uneven playing field.”
KEN MCLEOD, SPAA and The Advantage Travel Partnership › Travel Weekly Business, page 70
27/02/2018 18:15
applied to join. A spokesman said every application is “thoroughly vetted and subject to authorisation from our membership committee”. InteleTravel has been recruiting via social media. Its website states: “(We) firmly believe it shouldn’t matter if someone already has a career or doesn’t know anything about travel; what’s important is how passionate he or she is.” Targeting non-travel
Abta/FCO launch training on safety
after Tui was accused of failing to inform holidaymakers of a high risk of terror in Tunisia. Travel companies, including Thomas Cook and Tui, have since implemented changes such as including links to FCO advice on every web page. The FCO also updated the way it
describes terror threats to include the likelihood, predictability, frequency and context of attacks, as well as an assessment of local security services. Nikki White, Abta director of destinations and sustainability, said: “Customers are increasingly looking to their travel providers to help answer difficult questions about destinations. “We hope this training will help
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STORIES HOT
InteleTravel has been recruiting
potential agents via social media
4854 4866 4861
TALK BACK WHAT YOU’RE SAYING THIS WEEK
LETTERS OF THE
WEEK
EDITORIAL@ TRAVEL WEEKLY.
CO.UK
InteleTravel’s recruitment concerns me
Story: American homeworking group InteleTravel applies for Abta licence If Abta gives this organisation a licence to trade, it would have a big impact on our UK travel industry. InteleTravel is inviting “stay-at-home mums” with no travel experience the opportunity to sell travel – it fills me with horror. JENNY
US firm applies for Abta licence
Ben Ireland
ben.ireland@
travelweekly.co.uk
Abta confirmed InteleTravel had
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