NEWS m with discussions with leading travel industry, finance and regulatory experts. Ian Taylor reports


Alan Bowen


Tui and Virgin Holidays say refund problems resolved


David Gard, Deloitte


L


Jacqueline Dobson


eading companies insist the difficulties in paying cash refunds to customers in the first months of the


pandemic have been resolved. Tui UK and Virgin Holidays were


among operators identified by the regulator, the CMA, as taking too long to refund clients. Richard Sofer, Tui UK


commercial director, said: “Te challenge we had was down to the fact we had so many customers and never expected to have to deal with that many in such a short period. “It wasn’t that we were delaying


payment – we were physically unable to deal with the volume. “In the space of two to three days


we prety much had to build new systems to deal with requests online.” Sofer told the Travel Weekly


Insight Report launch event: “We It wasn’t that we were


delaying payment – we were physically unable to deal with the volume”


had to hold our hands up. It wasn’t as good as we expect of ourselves. But we learnt a lot along the way and there are no challenges going forward.” He added: “Tere weren’t a great


deal of cancellations or refunds with the most-recent lockdown, but we were able to refund all those [who wanted a refund] within 14 days.” Lee Haslet, head of global sales


at Virgin Atlantic, said: “We were caught completely off guard by the huge volume of refunds we had to process. We’re thankful for the patience of customers and partners. We completed the backlog in


November, but it was a real challenge. Te industry in general wasn’t set up for these times.” Barrhead Travel president


Jacqueline Dobson agreed: “Te situation is under control now. Initially it was the sheer volume of refunds. We had thousands and thousands of bookings affected. “We had all our stores closed and


if a customer paid with a credit card in store, you can’t refund that online. You need a PDQ [point-of-sale card] machine. Tat is where we found real difficulty. We built a system that was able to bulk-refund customers.” Dobson stressed the importance


of “keeping in communication with customers”, explaining: “We spoke to every customer, whether by phone or when we opened our stores, explaining why refunds were slower, that we had to wait for refunds from suppliers.”


‘Don’t expect a real sales surge until summer’


Senior industry figures have warned failures are likely before there is a serious pick-up in bookings. Chris Photi, head of travel and leisure at White Hart


Associates, said: “Some businesses will be limping badly towards the spring. Easter seems to be when the feelgood factor should filter through. But cash could be an issue. Businesses that have hibernated and kept overheads low should be in reasonable shape for a bounce-back. But with a bounce-back you have to spend, not least on marketing. I expect a few more failures.” Alan Bowen, legal advisor to the Association of


Richard Sofer


travelweekly.co.uk


Atol Companies, argued Easter may be too soon for a bounce-back, saying: “There is a real problem with consumer confidence and I suspect it’s going to be near summer before we really see bookings coming in. “Operators need to be prepared that we’re not going to


see the sort of peak season bookings we have in the past. “We were incredibly lucky this year. January was a


‘Welcome back on board’


Produced by Travel Weekly, with exclusive consumer research 17 DECEMBER 2020 11


wonderful booking month and a lot of operators had a lot of cash as this disaster began. The situation is different now. It’s a case of holding on to what you have.” However, Bowen said: “We’ve seen incredible


resilience on the travel agent and tour operator side.” Photi added: “The debt businesses have taken on


under government support schemes won’t need to be serviced for at least 12 months. Repayments aren’t going to impact businesses yet.”


Produced in association with


To download this year’s T


ravel Weekly Insight Annual Report 2020-21


Report for FREE and watch the launch debates, visit:


travelweeklyinsight.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48