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Crooks offer festive cheer for agents
Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)
Identity fraud. Two words to strike joy into the heart of any high street travel agent.
The over-50s, according to new reports, are now increasingly scared of buying on line because of fraudsters on the net and are switching back to traditional shopping.
This is no great surprise. A couple of months ago, one of my debit cards was cloned and I had over £500 taken from my account. The bank refunded me and it wouldn’t be enough to keep me off the net, but it might be different if I was a bit older and living on a pension.
Not only that, but Barclays are making us use a portable gadget, which spews out codes, every time we want to log into our accounts. It makes you wonder whether it is all worth it.
The combined Thomas Cook/MyTravel operation has taken out 140 shops this year, but still has 807 shops nationwide. As it prepares for the post-Christmas sales campaign (around 30% of summer bookings are still made in January and February), it says that the shops are still hugely important.
This is partly because the shops have improved, but also because the rapid decline in people going to high street stores may have bottomed out. Identity fraud on the Internet will certainly help that.
If a multiple is doing well, good independents will be doing better.
We also know that if people are spending a lot of money on their holidays, they are more likely to consult an agent.
This year, even those buying a bog standard package may have to pay more than they bargained for on the high street.
TUI has taken 14% of its capacity out. Of course, there were too many holidays on sale last year, but surely you can’t take that amount away without having an impact on prices.
Last year, tour operators were saved by the floods. They were heading for a disastrous summer before the rain came and people couldn’t get abroad quickly enough. If they’ve done their sums properly for 2008, they shouldn’t have to rely so heavily on the weather and could be selling holidays for higher prices through agents, who will take a bigger commission.
So, the humble travel agent can dare to dream of a prosperous New Year. This year, they may just raise a glass to all those fraudsters plying their trade on the internet.
Happy Christmas!
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