NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
damage is already done.” He compared the uncertainty
over Brexit to the computer bug fears ahead of the millennium when “nothing happened”. Jennifer Atkinson, chairman
of the Inspiring Travel Company, said businesses should remain optimistic, adding: “You hope politicians don’t stand in the way of business. It feels like they are not looking at the needs of businesses or the economy. That’s what’s so dangerous. Their political divides are making the landscape for people who are trying to run prosperous, growing businesses quite hard.” Atkinson said ITC had been
due to complete a private equity deal during the week of the 2016 EU referendum, but the result caused investors to panic. She said: “However, that only
lasted two to three weeks, then it all settled down. I wonder whether when [Brexit] actually happens, there will be that pause again for a month or so, and then life goes on.” Cooper and Atkinson both
said that despite the lack of Brexit clarity, businesses should not set lower budgets for 2019. Atkinson said: “I’d be cautious
about [setting] a negative budget because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Thomas Cook Airlines chief
executive Christoph Debus said: “The biggest impact will be the devaluation on the pound. But we don’t plan for a downturn.” But Manchester airport’s
chief operating officer, Tricia Williams, said businesses must plan for Brexit. “The message is, don’t wait. You have to start planning now,” she said, adding that the airport had seen a rise in visitors from non-EU countries. “It would be naive to be
overly optimistic yet you don’t want to scaremonger,” she said. “[But] it is hard to put Brexit and positive in the same sentence.”
Travel Weekly Business Breakfast: North-based travel firms discuss
On the Beach tips agent take-up of Classic Online
On the Beach chief executive Simon Cooper says he is hopeful agents will embrace the OTA’s shift to selling via the high street after its acquisition of Classic Collection Holidays.
The Manchester-based
firm launched Classic Online after buying the operator for £20 million in August. It signals a change in stance
for the company, which Cooper told the room had “never sold a package prior to July 1, 2018”, when the new Package Travel Directive (PTD) was introduced. However, he said he was confident agents would use the new portal because they had been using it before it moved towards a more trade-friendly model. “Whenever there has been an
airline failure, we have had people contact us, people who have, say, 28 bookings with us. These are not individual travellers, these are agents who have been on our portal pre-Package Travel Directive. “Hopefully, over time, if we can build the right type of product,
Debus plans more Manchester routes for Thomas Cook
The boss of Thomas Cook Airlines has promised more long-haul growth out of Manchester, with both new routes and increased frequencies on existing services. Chief executive Christoph Debus
said Manchester “is the heart of our operation in the UK”. The airline flies to 17 long-haul destinations from Manchester and employs 1,700 staff at the airport.
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travelweekly.co.uk 11 October 2018
COOPER: ’Our infrastructure has grown to support the sale of packages’
make it available to the agents to allow them to access competitively- priced product with fair incentives and commissions and so on, then I’m hopeful agents will embrace it.” He added: “We always thought
there was an opportunity to sell our product via the high street but not in a world pre-Package Travel Directive. It was a watershed moment. Our infrastructure has grown to support the sale of packages, so [we can provide] the 24/7 duty office, legal functions,
Debus said: “Manchester gives
us the ability to develop really good long-haul networks. In London you have so much offering, but we started our [long-haul] strategy from Manchester five years ago [because] many people from the north prefer to go direct. “We will grow that network.
Not only new routes but we will increase the frequencies too.” Debus cited the example of
the Manchester-New York route, which Thomas Cook Airlines introduced in summer 2015 with three flights a week and now operates daily, even during winter.
DEBUS: Says Manchester ‘is the heart of our operation in the UK’
direct marketing, health and safety and so on.” He said Classic Collection would
benefit from using On the Beach’s technology, while On the Beach would prosper from the trade contacts of Classic Collection, which will remain “a distinct, stand-alone entity”. Cooper said Classic Online was “designed to be a competitively- priced mainstream offering” to help agents “who may now struggle post-Package Travel Directive”.
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