ABTA chief advises agents as school holiday debate gets more ‘aggressive’

Monday, 05 Feb, 2016 0

ABTA’s chief executive has offered advice to agents as the school holiday debate gets ‘more aggressive and emotive’.

Mark Tanzer told agents that the media attention was not likely to go away, in his guidance note.

And he added that the most immediate and practical thing for travel agents to do was ‘encourage parents to plan in advance and book early’, as well as advising them of the expertise agents offer.

The advice follows agents’ anger over an interview on Good Morning Britain where they said presenter Piers Morgan was ‘rude’ and ‘a disgrace to journalism’ over his approach to ABTA spokesman Sean Tipton.

Tipton had tried to argue that school holidays should be staggered by region to ease the pressure on families, but Morgan was dismissive and accused travel companies of being greedy.

Piers Morgan then responded to the uproar in a patronising Twitter response saying, ‘stop being so damn greedy then’.

ABTA chief, Tanzar warned in his guidance: "Our team has taken this opportunity to explain pricing but the debate continues to become more aggressive and emotive, with the simple economic model of supply and demand condemned as greed.

"ABTA has long argued that one way to even out the peaks and troughs in travel pricing, is to spread demand more equally across the year and we have made this point to parents, journalists and Government.

"It is likely that this issue will continue to attract media attention and the most immediate, practical thing we can all do is to encourage parents to plan in advance and book early, as well as reminding them of the expertise and assistance that a travel company can offer them in finding their perfect holiday.

Diane

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