NEWS
Agents hit
back at
survey
Travel agents have disputed
results of a survey that found
just 7% of consumers would
seek advice from an agent
when planning a holiday.
The Entire Direct Marketing
survey, conducted online,
also found 66% of respondents
preferred the internet when researching
holidays and 8%
placed guidebooks and magazines
ahead of travel agents.
Gabi Birbeck, director of
Rendezvous Travel in Little
Chalfont, Buckinghamshire,
thought the opposite. “I would
say many come in, use us and
then book online.”
She added that those who
use the internet often encounter
confl icting reports and
turned to the agency for impartial
advice.
“Because we are small and
independent, clients ask us what
we think. They feel they can
trust us. We get a lot of bookings
that way,” Birbeck said.
>What do you think?
Email travel.weekly@rbi.co.
uk. Visit www.travelweekly.
co.uk for the full story
Birbeck:
Clients trust
small
independent
agencies
Celebs climb
high for
Comic Relief
Celebrities are going
to raise a mountain of
cash for Comic Relief by
climbing to the summit
of Mount Kilimanjaro
for this year’s Red Nose
Day. From left, are Chris
Moyles, Denise Van
Outen, Fearne Cotton,
Gary Barlow and Cheryl
Cole boarding a Kenya
Airways fl ight from
Heathrow. They were
joined by Kimberley
Walsh and Ronan
Keating.
Survey suggests increased discretionary income is being earmarked for travel
Consumers will not give
up 2009 holiday dreams
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@rbi.co.uk
Holidaymakers are even less
willing to forego their annual
holiday than six months ago
but many will adopt new costcutting
tactics.
Research among 2,000
consumers by Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers in February showed
only 16% would not go on holiday
at all, compared with 20%
asked the same question in July
last year. Only 17% now said
they would take fewer holidays,
compared to 20% last July.
PWC said the poll suggested
recent interest rate cuts
have helped to create more
discretionary spending.
Just six months ago more
consumers intended to reduce
Scottish miniple Barrhead
Travel has revealed plans to
open three new branches
this year.
The company, which has 11
retail shops across Scotland,
will open branches in Aberdeen,
Inverness and East
“Interest rate cuts
are creating more
discretionary
income”
their holiday spend. In July
2008, 12% said they would not
cut back at all, while in February
15% said they would not
tighten holiday expenditure.
Head of travel Malcolm
Preston said: “While there is
no doubt short breaks will be
hit harder than in boom years,
interest rate cuts are creating
more discretionary income.
This in turn is being pigeonholed
for travel.”
However, PWC said the full
Kilbride around October this
year and is already “aggressively
recruiting” for 50 extra
staff.
Director Mark Brock said
the agency would speak to
staff at Travel 2’s Glasgow call
centre, which is making up to
extent of the industry’s response
to the recession would
not be clear until the autumn
and warned the number of
holidays sold would continue
to drop.
The poll also showed more
than two-thirds of consumers
plan to trade down on holidays.
A quarter of those surveyed
said they would take a cheaper
holiday in the same location by
adopting cost-cutting methods,
including staying in cheaper
hotels, choosing self-catering,
taking cheaper transport, waiting
for a last-minute deal or going
for 10 nights instead of 14.
Preston warned companies
to hold their nerve on price
and remain fl exible. “The businesses
that meet this spectrum
of coping mechanisms will see
300 positions redundant in a
“structural review”.
Barrhead Travel will also
look outside the travel industry
for new recruits. “We are
also keen to take on fi nancial
services staff who have lost
their jobs amid the turmoil in
out the recession,” he said.
Meanwhile, the trade predicted
Easter would be critical.
Anthony Goord, proprietor of
Peter Goord Travel in Plymouth,
said: “That’s when families
will decide whether to go
on a summer holiday.”
Lowcost Travel Group director
Lawrence Hunt warned
hoteliers in a four-hour fl ight
radius in the western Mediterranean
needed to launch joint
promotions with tourist boards
or airlines to boost sales hit by
high prices.
“They need to fi x this situation
or they will have a rubbish
summer,” Hunt said.
He added that the bed bank
is seeing an “explosion” in
sales to non-eurozone hotspots
such as Turkey and Tunisia.
Barrhead plans three new branches
that sector. They have sales
and customer service skills
and we can teach them travel
as long as they have the right
attitude,” said Brock.
> See page 8 for another
travel agency’s recession-
defying success story
UK falls out
of tourism
top 10 list
The UK is no longer among the
top 10 countries considered
ripe for tourism development.
It has fallen to number 11 in
the rankings of the World Economic
Forum’s Travel and Tourism
Competitive Report 2009.
The report, Managing in a
Time of Turbulence, ranked Switzerland,
Austria and Germany
as the countries with the best
environments for developing
their tourism industries.
The WEF’s strategic design
partner on the report, Booz and
Company, said the downturn
and climate change regulation
were forcing the government to
rethink the UK’s tourism policy.
>See page 7 for more news
on domestic tourism
4 | Travel Weekly | March 6 2009 www.travelweekly.co.uk
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