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NEWS ROUND-UP


Suppliers give ex-Freedom staff bookings support


More operators have moved to guarantee former Freedom Travel Group members their commission on bookings made before the collapse of the Tomas Cook-owned consortium. Saga Travel and sister firm Titan


COLLAPSE


THOMAS COOK


Domestic specialists seek to fill Super Break gap


Benjamin Coren


will transfer bookings to ex-Freedom members’ new consortia, and pay commission as agents become the client’s point of contact again. Agents need to confirm their new Abta number to secure the booking. It follows similar moves by


companies including Jet2holidays, P&O Cruises, Cunard and Royal Caribbean International. Meanwhile, atraction tickets


specialist Do Something Different has fulfilled all 675 forward bookings made by Freedom members when Tomas Cook collapsed. Te bookings were worth £685,000. Head of sales and marketing


Annabel Cove said the teams had been working 12 and 14-hour shiſts to secure bookings. She said: “Tere was a long period


of uncertainty over how much risk we were going to be exposed to.”


Domestic hotel suppliers and theatre-break specialists are increasing their trade offerings to fill the gap leſt by Super Break’s collapse. Hotel Direct and Great Litle


Breaks are all boosting their B2B short-break ranges. Hotel Direct, which was a


B2C competitor to Super Break, is developing a travel agent portal to begin working with the trade for the first time since it set up in 1997. Te portal will offer


dynamic packaging of UK rail breaks, theatre breaks and hotel bookings, and is due to launch on November 1. Director and co-founder Mark


Wilson said: “We’ve been exploring the possibility of selling dynamic packages through agents. Te collapse of the Malvern Group [Super Break’s parent company] hastened our development of a trade platform and we are pleased to be able to announce its launch.”


COSTA BRAVO: A former Thomas Cook manager and four staff assisted more than 40 customers with CAA claim forms outside a Costa Coffee shop in Edinburgh last week. Paul Morgan joined Nadia Galeotti (left), Lynne Nelson (second left), assistant manager Rachael Miller (front) and Joni McKenzie in the Cameron Toll shopping centre near their former agency, which will reopen as Hays Travel. Morgan, who worked for Cook for 19 years, since leaving school, said: “We got almost all of the claims sorted, and we’ve had lots of positive words. We were happy to deal with anybody, and it was great to be working with the team again.” The entire team will be working for Hays Travel.


8 17 OCTOBER 2019


Super Break sold theatre breaks


Wilson said all hotel-only


bookings, as well as packages, would be financially protected – something Super Break did not offer and which became clear to some agents only aſter its collapse on July 31. “Tis will mean agents will know


that whatever they book with us will be fully protected,” said Wilson. Great Litle Breaks plans to launch


a trade platform before the end of the year and is recruiting a head of travel trade as it seeks to “move further into the domestic market”.


Diana Evans, sales and marketing


director at parent HotelshopUK, said: “It was always part of our business plan. Super Break was one of the companies we always aspired to and the collapse, while sad, has expedited plans to move in that direction.” Administrator KPMG has


accepted an offer for Super Break’s assets, which had previously been valued at £2.1 million. Te buyer has not been named as the sale has not yet been completed.


COLLAPSE


THOMAS COOK


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Shutterstock


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