LETTERS
Letter of the week
Are any operators on our side?
Are there any tour operators out
there that do NOT do any of the
following:
● Undercut travel agents on their
own websites
● Send out questionnaires with
clients’ tickets asking for their
address details for future direct
mailing
● Reply to our clients’ complaints
with gift vouchers to be used
direct with the operator in future
● Refuse to let an agency make a
last-minute booking but will do
so with the client directly
● Send a customer a brochure
directly in three days but won’t
send our supplies for weeks?
Win a bottle of rum punch!
Do you have a view about something you’ve
read in Travel Weekly? If so, get in touch. The
letter of the week wins a bottle of rum punch
courtesy of Trinidad and Tobago.
Why so few black
faces in this mag?
After raising this issue several months
ago and having spent more than 15
years in travel and as a regular
reader of Travel Weekly, I continue
to be saddened by the way your
pages feature a wave of white faces,
be it in high positions, as columnists,
or to illustrate weddings in exotic
places. Meanwhile, black faces are
used to illustrate a visit to Africa, the
Caribbean, or picking tea in India.
Are you not aware that ethnic
minorities make up a percentage
of the population and are indeed in
the travel industry occupying
positions of offi ce? Oh, and yes, we
Please reveal yourselves. At
the moment I am fi nding the
industry discriminating,
two-faced and dishonest.
Laura Shepherd, Travel Centre,
Mid Wales
do like to have a good time, too.
It was, however, nice to see Travel
Weekly editor-in-chief Penny Wilson
mention the achievement of Barack
Obama last week (unlike your
competitor). People say a black
person will never occupy 10
Downing Street in the next 10 years
because of the system, and it seems
our industry refl ects the same bias
toward black issues. I would like to
see this addressed in the same way
as the issue of women in top jobs in
the industry, which you do seem
happy to feature from time to time.
Robert Campbell, managing
director, Travelshop365.com,
Warrington, Cheshire
>Editor’s response: Thank you for
bringing this important issue to the
fore. It is my perception – although
I have no statistical back-up – that
there are few black people employed
within the UK travel industry
and few in infl uential positions.
If that perception is correct, then
the issue is much deeper and of much
more concern than the lack of photographs
of black people, be they on the
shop fl oor or the chiefs of companies.
>What do you think? Could more
be done to represent black people in
travel? Email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk
Some extra tips for
selling add-ons
At the youtravel.com round-table
debate in Greece (Travel Weekly,
October 24), agents highlighted the
importance of booking more addons
and maintaining customer
service as a way of beating the
credit crunch.
In 25 years of business, Holiday
Extras has survived downturns –
in part due to the role add-ons play.
Agents must fi nd ways to
introduce extras at point of sale.
For instance, 25% of leisure
travellers will pre-book airport
parking so agents need to make
sure the customer books with them.
If your customer has an early
departure or late return fl ight, or
their journey to the airport could be
delayed, advise an overnight stay at
an airport hotel, and suggest this to
customers travelling with children or
elderly people. Also, services such as
‘Undercover Hotels’ – where the
name of the hotel is a mystery until
the booking is confi rmed – offer
Write to
‘Letters page’, Travel Weekly, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton,
Surrey, SM2 5AS. Fax: 020 8652 3956; email: travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk
All correspondence must be accompanied by a name, job title and
company address. These will be withheld on request. We reserve the
right to edit letters. The deadline is Monday, 10am.
attractive savings to customers.
Many clients don’t realise they can
pre-book an airport lounge with their
holiday. Educate them – they’ll be
more likely to agree to a lounge at
the time of booking their trip.
Karen Simmonds, director, Travel
Matters, Clapham, London
Make health and
safety top priority
I read with interest your article,
‘Travelife brings hope’, (Travel
Weekly, November 14). While I
fi nd it encouraging that the travel
industry is taking the environmental
impact of hotels seriously, it must
not overlook the importance
of having health and safety
management systems in place.
With hotels and tour operators
taking proactive steps to become
greener and more energy effi cient,
they must not forget about health
and safety standards. Hygiene
cannot be taken for granted and
an outbreak of food poisoning could
quickly cause irreparable damage
to a hotel’s reputation.
Health and safety and
hygiene should be top of the travel
industry’s priority list. If efforts are
being made to make hotels more
energy effi cient and green, then an
equal, if not higher, amount of time
should be taken to inspect and
monitor potential dangers to
holidaymakers, and rectify these
immediately.
Mark Harrington, chief executive,
Check Safety First, Chepstow,
Monmouthshire
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