Long: We blundered on commissions

Friday, 29 Nov, 2007 0

TUI Travel chief executive Peter Long admitted the company had blundered by cutting commission to independent agents and vowed to work with them in future.

In a question and answer session at the ABTA Travel Convention, moderator Jeremy Vine rounded on Long, saying he had first cut commission and then increased it.

Long simply shrugged his shoulders and admitted: “We don’t always get things right.”

He added that he was now committed to working with independents. “Customers want our holidays through your shops, so we need a mixed model and in a changing world, different partnerships are beneficial.”

Federation of Tour Operators director general Andy Cooper asked Long and Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa how they could promote the fact that they offered financial protection.

“You can’t say don’t worry if it goes tits up because we’ll protect you. How do you promote a negative like that?” asked Cooper.

Long said it was not possible but claimed it would win customers through offering them added value in all areas.

Fontenla-Novoa added: “You can’t base an advertising campaign around it but you can train your staff to explain the issues.”

Lastminute.com chief executive Ian McCaig claimed product differentiation would be virtually zero in future as people have access to all holidays. But Fontenla-Novoa disputed this, claiming the differentiation came from the standards set by employees.

“Everything else is easy to copy,” said Fontenla-Novoa.

Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle wanted to know what the operators could add to the cruise industry.

Long replied that they gave holidaymakers something “slightly different” from cruise companies, because typically they flew people out to resort for a land-based holiday and then teamed that with a cruise.

Long declined to talk about TUI’s expansion plans in the cruise sector but ruled out investing in large ships of its own.

by Jeremy Skidmore

Jeremy Skidmore

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