ABTA defends big four

ABTA has defended major tour operators which have been strongly criticised in a new survey by consumer magazine Holiday Which? The publication surveyed 11,000 members and found that only 20 per cent of them would recommend JMC and Airtours. Only 26 per cent were happy with First Choice and 34 per cent would recommend Thomas Cook. But ABTA said the findings were unrepresentative and conflicted with feedback from MORI polls conducted in November 2004. The MORI survey found that 94 per cent of people who had taken a package holiday in the past 12 months were either very or fairly satisfied with their holiday. In addition, 95 per cent said their holiday was good value and 87 per cent said they were either certain to, very likely to or fairly likely to take another package holiday in the next 12 months. “The problem with the Holiday Which? Survey is that it is self-selecting among only its readership,” said ABTA chief executive Ian Reynolds. “The people who decide to respond do not result from a random approach and may not be representative of package holidays in general. It is, therefore, unsurprising that specialist tour operators do better than those catering for the mass market.” Ann Harvey, acting head of Which?, said holiday companies had to improve. “The results are pretty much what you would expect and the big companies could certainly do better.” However, she conceded the operators had acted responsibly over the tsunami disaster. “Over things like cancellation charges, the major operators have done more than they were legally obliged to do,” she said. In the Holiday Which? Survey, specialist Laskarina Holidays came top with 100 per cent of people who travelled with them saying they would recommend the company.