NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
up and running within three months. The sports division, which he also hopes to launch later this year, will be called ST Sports. Southall Travel spent
£12 million on sports advertising last year with the English Premier League and Sky Sports for its coverage of India’s IPL cricket tournament. A move to increase Southall’s
presence in short-haul was a reaction to April booking patterns, added Bahia, as its customers demand more European holidays. Southall Travel will move
from Iver, Buckinghamshire, into new headquarters in London’s Mayfair this month, a decision prompted by the need to find the right talent to bring into the business, Bahia said. “To continue to grow I have
to get more talented people around me and there is a bigger talent pool in London,” he said. Bahia said it had been an ambition to be based in a part of London where many of Southall’s airline partners have offices. He added: “In Iver I can do maybe one or two meetings a day; in London I can do five or six, so the output will increase.” Southall Travel was originally
set up to serve the significant visiting friends and family market among the Asian community in west London with a single store in Southall, which it still operates. Today, the group has
corporate and luxury travel divisions, online retail brands, and operates trade aggregator The Holiday Team. Asked how his business has changed over the years, Bahia said: “When I started we had a £500,000 turnover and I nearly sold the business for £20,000. “You have to understand the basics, you have to be different. “We have been changing and adapting as we go.”
BARCLAYS TRAVEL FORUM: The 12th annual event saw 300 senior
Pickett points to debt and GDP as concerns for travel
Signs that household expenditure is being squeezed and consumer debt is rising are concerning for the prospects of the travel sector.
Graham Pickett, Deloitte lead partner for travel hospitality and leisure, gave an economic update full of foreboding for travel. He accepted some economists
got it wrong predicting a post-Brexit vote crash, but he described the UK economy as “precarious” and asked: “Are we running on borrowed time?” Pickett pointed to stagnant
wage growth and rising household debt, while economic productivity in the UK remains stubbornly low, 18% behind other G7 countries. Figures show Britons have £270 per person more credit card debt than in January 2016, inflation is creeping up and unemployment fears are rising, said Pickett. “All statistics are showing that things are tighter at home,” he said. “Inflation risk is definitely there. Unemployment is being mentioned again. House prices are
‘Cybercrime and data breaches are major risks’
The risk of cybercrime is the number-one concern for the travel industry, Deloitte’s Graham Pickett told the forum. “The crime guys are getting
smarter and smarter by the day. What is our industry doing? We are getting more and more into big data and we are outsourcing more of our activity, particularly in IT.”
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travelweekly.co.uk 18 May 2017 PICKETT: ‘There will be a bumpy ride [as Brexit talks] hit the headlines’
“Things are tighter at home . . . but we must not talk ourselves into recession”
not going up as they were. “We need to reflect on that
impact, albeit to be careful not to talk ourselves into recession.” Pickett said the impact of Brexit and political uncertainty was feeding through into economic uncertainty. A 16% post-
Pickett said the sector was becoming more reliant on technol- ogy, with new European rules due to come in next year under which firms will face huge fines for breaches of data security rules. Firms could be fined €20 million
or 4% of global turnover, whichever is higher, from May 2018 under new General Data Protection Regulations. Pickett said he feared things
were “going the wrong way”. “We need to focus as an industry
to combat cyber risk,” he said. Meanwhile, growing levels of gastric illness compensation
claims against travel companies were “fraud”, Pickett said. He warned the image of the industry risked being damaged if it did not do something.
referendum devaluation in the pound is behind many cost rises. “There is definitely going to be
a bumpy ride as headlines hit the press day in day out as we go in to Article 50 negotiations.” Despite the challenges for the UK and internationally, Pickett said the travel sector globally was seeing a number of positive trends. He said the sector’s share of GDP and employment was continuing to rise, adding: “We need to make it clear to government we are playing a bigger part in our economy.”
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