NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4
Agent to address world summit on accessible travel
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
A travel agent is to urge mainstream operators and bed banks to use their influence to spur hotels to lift restrictive poli- cies towards disabled travellers.
Travel Counsellors’ Richard Thompson, who has been in the industry for 40 years and is disabled, will speak at Destinations for All 2018, the second global summit on accessible tourism, in Brussels next week. The first event was held in Montreal four years ago.
He believes basic changes in
hotel policies, such as installing hoists at swimming pools, opening up kids’ clubs to disabled children and guaranteeing accessible rooms, could unlock the sector’s potential. “A change of policy could
transform the landscape,” he said. “It only costs about £3,000 for
a pool hoist, and the fact very few kids’ clubs accept disabled children is shameful. “UK operators and bed banks
have leverage – they can tell hotels that if they have kids’ clubs that accept all children, they will get their customers.”
Thompson will cite Travel Counsellors as an example of a company making the most of this market opportunity. He said: “There is a view within the industry, a preconception, that unless you are a specialist company or disabled yourself, you cannot sell to this market. This is not true. “The industry needs to be
educated. These are just customers with a different set of requirements.” The ‘purple pound’ is estimated to be worth £249 billion a year
Richard Thompson: ‘A change of policy could transform the landscape’
to the UK economy. According to government statistics, there are more than 11 million people in the UK with a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability. Thompson said: “It is not
niche; it’s a market that is totally disregarded by our industry.” Thompson became paralysed
from the neck down after a car accident in the French Alps in 1986, but has since recovered movement so he can walk. He said: “I’m one of the lucky ones.”
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5 Specialist Journeys to sell via trade
Lucy Huxley
lucy.huxley@
travelweekly.co.uk
Specialist Journeys is to start selling four of its brands through the trade as it looks to grow the business by 25% a year over the next three years.
The Salisbury-based business,
which was acquired by private equity firm Kings Park Capital in 2015, brought in former Titan Travel boss Jackie Willis as chief executive in March this year. The four brands are: Andante
Travels, which offers archaeological and cultural tours; gardening tour specialist Brightwater Holidays; Historical Trips; and wine tour specialist Arblaster & Clarke. Average selling prices are about
£1,500 for Brightwater and more than £2,000 for each of the other three brands, the operator said. Willis’s former colleague
Richard Tarrant, who worked at Voyages to Antiquity after leaving Titan, joined Specialist Journeys as marketing director in May. Tarrant said: “Specialist Journeys carries between 8,000-9,000
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travelweekly.co.uk 27 September 2018
“We’ll remove all direct booking numbers from brochures and offer complete price parity”
passengers, but we are looking to almost double that by 2021 and we plan to exploit every channel to market to help us do that. Tarrant added: “We will provide
agent training, plus marketing and sales resources and support.” He said the group would “remove all direct booking
numbers from brochures and offer complete price parity and competitive commission, with no exclusions in the commissionable element of the booking”. Specialist Journeys has
appointed marketing agency 3For to help set up commercial partnerships, and is in talks with The Advantage Travel Partnership, The Travel Network Group, Hays Travel, Midcounties Co-operative Travel and Travel Counsellors. It is planning 500 agency sales
visits in October and November and 500 in February and March.
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