NEWS took place in Japan this week. Amie Keeley, Lucy Huxley and Ian Taylor report from Tokyo
We must clarify customer cash rules – Abta chairman
Abta’s chairman said the association must “clarify” rules over when customers’ cash is collected and passed on to the supplier, following the collapse of Tomas Cook. Alistair Rowland said many travel businesses had got
into the habit of living off customers’ cash having taken payments early. Speaking at a special session on Tomas Cook at Te
Mark Tanzer
Travel Convention, Rowland told delegates there was “a problem generally” with “over-early collection of cash” in the industry. “It’s just not helpful,” he said. “Many travel businesses
historically have lived from customers’ cash ahead of the payment schedule. We should have absolute clarity over when a collection takes place, when money is passed over, and in that time, what is protected in those funds either through the CAA or Abta. “We can do a lot here to help ourselves in an area of the
sector we have lived in for a long time.” Rowland, who is also chief retail officer for specialist
Panellists at Travel Weekly’s Business Breakfast in Tokyo
businesses at Te Midcounties Co-operative, said agency chains were “chasing” former Tomas Cook shops and that there were at least three bids for most of the outlets. A deadline of 5pm on Monday was set by liquidators for
final offers on Cook shops, but high costs and liabilities are understood to be a sticking point for some potential bidders.
Alistair Rowland
Welsh 18-branch agency Tailor Made Travel reversed a plan to take on 10 former Cook shops, citing a £35,000 fee per shop before the costs of repair and refurbishment. “Te trick will be geting those deals away quickly so we
can trade again within four weeks,” added Rowland. Te Official Receiver (liquidator) said it “will be looking to achieve the best price for all available assets”.
Read next week’s T ravel Weekly for a full report from Abta 2019 in Japan
Thomas Cook was dysfunctional and needed to go, says Brendon
Tomas Cook “needed to go” as it was becoming “dysfunctional” aſter years of mismanagement. Cook created a major warning sign
by asking customers to pay balances in full well in advance of holidays, said Atraction Tickets Direct (ATD) chief executive Oliver Brendon. Speaking at Travel Weekly’s
Business Breakfast at Abta’s Travel Convention in Tokyo, he revealed ATD had about £1 million worth of exposure to the failure through its business with Freedom Travel Group members. Brendon said ATD took calls from
travelweekly.co.uk
worried customers on the day of the collapse, including one who had been asked by Cook to pay their balance in full for a holiday in Easter 2020. “Although it’s tragic for hoteliers
and staff and sad for customers, it struck me that Cook needed to go,” said Brendon. “Asking customers to pay in full that far in advance is dysfunctional behaviour. Mismanaged companies should go if they’re being mismanaged for so long.” Der Touristik UK chief executive
Derek Jones said media perceptions that Tomas Cook failed because it had “failed to move on” from the high
street were “inherently wrong”. “On the business pages you have a
failed business model and a failure to execute the high street and move into digital,” he said. “And in the same paper on the news pages there are stories of Tomas Cook staff working out of Costa Coffee helping customers. “So there’s this weird
juxtaposition around something that becomes unfashionable until such a point that people realise the value of it, at which point it becomes something we all celebrate.” Jones, whose Kuoni stores
have taken on seven Cook agents,
added: “Te high street, face-to-face relationships and people-to-people has a future. It’s more about finding an economically viable way to do that and therein is the challenge.” Lisa McAuley, managing director
of dnata Travel’s B2B tour operations in Europe, said while Tomas Cook’s demise was “heartbreaking” for the staff, it created an opportunity for other travel businesses. She said: “Te brutal commercial
reality is that Cook failing leaves an opportunity out there. Someone’s
failure is another’s opportunity.” i Comment, page 18
10 OCTOBER 2019 7
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