Travel Weekly Blog

I removed a bit of a conjouring trick from our story on Hotel-fairy.com's Facebook poll, which suggests that only 14% of the site's users frequent high-street travel agents.

The poll itself is basically sound. Survey of Facebook users, carried out on Facebook, covering the standard 1,000-person sample size. Fine.

But there's sleight-of-hand in the press release: 1,000 Facebook users become 'the Facebook Generation'.

'Generation' is a bit of a fuzzy word, inviting you to assume that what is true of users of a particular website is true of an entire age demographic.

It's also simply the wrong word, since stats indicate that Facebook is increasingly multi-generational, and there's no indication that the poll was targeted to a particular age group.

If anything, the assumption should be that only 14% of a fairly broad swath of the UK use high-street agents.

But that doesn't work either, since Facebook has (acc. to April 09 figures from O'Reilly Research) 18m users in a population of over 60m - and the very fact that poll respondents are Facebook users means they're the sort of people who are likely to book online.

So why publish the story at all? Well, because the point about Facebook users is useful on its own terms. If you're an agent and you're considering Facebook as a marketing tool, figures about its users' buying habits are going to help you make a decision.

Everybody loves a trend story. But sometimes extrapolation just muddies things up.

(NB: But it's fine if you're honest about it.)

Here's a video demo of a new piece of software from Amadeus leisure tech unit TravelTainment.

It uses Google Earth to create an interactive touch-screen globe for use in travel agencies, and will, according to marketing trade mag Revolution, herald 'the death of brochures'.

This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, however, since it runs on a Microsoft Surface. One of those will set you back about £8,000.

TravelTainment plans 'to roll out the app to the travel industry in the coming months', and yes, I'd love to walk into an agency and be able to play with one of these. (Our Mystery Shopper might even start rewarding long waits rather than penalising them).

For now, it seems unlikely to go further than a neat proof-of-concept that will generate some buzz about the 18-month-old TravelTainment.

But if that sounds a little negative, do bear in mind what five years can do to the price of hardware these days...

Spotted this Dixons.co.uk poster at Tottenham Court Road underground station. 

Get off at Knightsbridge, visit the discerning shopper's fave department store, ascend the exotic staircase and let Piers in the pinstripe suit demonstrate the magic of the latest high-definition flatscreen - then go to Dixons.co.uk and buy it

I wonder if Piers is considering a service fee on fully-integrated home cinema quotes...

A new survey 'shows distrust of travel agents', reports Travelmole, but a deeper reading provokes some suspicion.

...over 25% of consumers who booked a holiday through a travel agent felt their trip didn't accurately reflect the description in the brochure

The creators of the survey go on to talk about review sites, saying

Now holidaymakers ... can read honest, unbiased opinions from travellers who've recently visited the hotel

Which is all true, but how specific is it to agents? I'm not about slavishly defending Travel Weekly's readership, but try asking the same question of holidaymakers who booked direct.

So while I don't dispute the 25% figure, and don't suggest that agents shouldn't take it on board, there is no meaningful comparison with other channels here.

Indeed, the issue seems to be with product description versus reality, and that affects all of consumer marketing, from direct-sell operators' websites to Big Mac adverts.

Update: Cambuslangtravel.com now has a bare-bones announcement and a link to ABTA. But the criticisms below still stand... (2pm, August 27)

Cambuslang Travel, which isn't that well known nationally but is a sizeable Scottish agency, has gone down, leaving hundreds of potential lost bookings.

"Fear grips East Kilbride holidaymakers," says a local paper. Let's hope none of those worried holidaymakers tried going to Cambuslang Travel's website for clarification or reassurance, because they would have got this:

Bobcat.

Refresh the site and you'll get another word on roughly the same theme - cue two minutes of chatter as colleagues piped up with "I've got 'jackal'", "I've got 'elf'" and so on. What fun.

Or rather, what an insult to customers caught in the company's wake.

Chloe Berman, who covered the story for us, wrote that

Frustrated holidaymakers have been phoning the company and visiting the two retail shops in Cambuslang and East Kilbride with no success

...so things are no better outside the digital realm. So much for the new age of communication. I've said it before, but it's about the people, not the tools.

If you're affected, your best bet is to contact ABTA, or speak to your credit card provider about recovering your money.

In the profile-based social networking world, things are pretty clear - at least once you're old enough to put MySpace and Bebo out of the picture: it's LinkedIn for business, Facebook for pleasure.

Not so the status-driven world, in which Twitter controls the horizontal and the vertical.

I'll just post these real-life scenarios and leave it hanging...

Scenario 1

You've heard about problems at an airport. You're going to tweet about it anyway, but it could also affect your clients.

Whether or not you think of yourself as a 'brand', the benefits of them hearing about this through you rather than, say, the BBC are obvious.

In this scenario, you want clients following you - they get an extra bit of service at little or no cost to you.

Scenario 2

As everyone does from time to time, you need to blow off some steam. You want to do it within earshot of people who are likely to sympathise.

You're smart enough not to name clients, but you still don't want people to see you moaning about your bookings.

In this scenario, you definitely don't want clients following you.

Third-party clients like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and Thwirl will help you manage multiple accounts.

I sat down for dinner with some independent travel agents last night, which doesn't happen often enough.

One had been in the trade for a long time - we're talking decades - and told me this story about fams:

I went on one to [CONFIDENTIAL!] and really didn't like it. I said as much to my clients, but one couple booked it anyway. When they came back they said they wished they'd listened to me.

Did they return to book with her again? "Oh yes," she said, almost as if this was a rather silly question.

And it was, of course, because honesty inspires people to trust your judgment.

So to anyone who thinks agents go on fams for a jolly, then just come home and sell the product blindly: there's a counterexample for you.

(The occasion was a Premier Holidays / Hong Kong Tourism Board event celebrating Hong Kong Food and Wine Year - see my travelhub image gallery for some vids of a dim sum cookery lesson and pics of agents having a go.)

TTA boss Simon Hargreaves said at the weekend that travel agents have an 'irrational' fear of the internet, which the recession has made worse.

Perhaps. Given that the internet has caused severe disruption to traditional business models, 'irrational' may be an unfair choice of word. 'Counterproductive' might be better.

Anyway: in the name of balance, here are a few examples of the trade not being afraid of the web.

• Here's a thread about XL refunds on Travel Rants. Two out of the first three comments are from travel agents (both Nick and Lee are regular TR commenters). 
• Here's Murray Harrold, a self-confessed 'grumpy old travel agent', raving about Google Earth on a personal blog.
• Here's Matt Parsons' breakdown of travel companies on Twitter - many are agents.

...and here, by way of comparison, is some real irrational fear from Peter Preston in the Media Guardian, under the headline 'Web of destruction'.

Before there were computer disks to steal from the fees office, there was ­privacy, secrecy and supposed decency undisturbed. Before there was email, there was no Damian McBride hawking his poison from screen to screen.

...which is rather like blaming a brown envelope for the cash-for-questions scandals of the 90s. The internet is driven by people, and it won't do to blame it for their shortcomings.

The three examples above are a quick snapshot. Got more? Leave a comment...

Quick link, with thanks to Ofcom on Twitter - this is a download-and-print-able guide to mobile internet use abroad.

Bit consumery for TW to cover in any detail, but I'm an advocate of travel agents keeping a big folder marked 'value add stuff', and this is one to put in it.

Potentially segues into pushing a commissionable add-on like CallUma (emergency travel service largely delivered by mobile - check out Juliet Dennis's company profile for some insight and background).

Update: And there's a video too...

I'm just using this post to reproduce a comment I made on Travel Rants' 'ban fam trips' post, which looks set to go down as one of Darren's most provocative.

Both Kevin (Travolution) and I have been involved in the discussion over there, and our rival TTG has produced a news story and a comment from editor Lucy Huxley about the post.

So:

...I'm all for the industry being conscious of how it appears to consumers, and it's good that we're able to come here and make our case to a largely consumer audience.

The thing I'd want to get across is that fams and biz trips aren't a separate entity that has nothing to do with the wider market - you can't put them in a box and say they're bad, but consumer travel is good.

As one of the industry's most important marketing and research tools (and here industry = tourist boards, agents, operators, airlines, the lot) fams are crucial to how leisure travel is packaged and sold to consumers.

Chances are the hotel you book or the excursion you go on are available because someone - the agent who sells it to you and/or a representative of the operator who provides it - scoped it out on a fam. And as the folks above say, in that context there's no substitute for first-hand experience.

I mean what I say in the first paragraph - these discussions can be frustrating to those who work in the industry, but to some extent they represent the perception of consumers.

It would be a mistake to reject them because they aren't written by insiders, and it's good that most of the comments have focused on explaining the fam trip model rather than having a go at Darren.

As for the comments themselves, Gavin 'Joe Blogs' Boswell was first in, with good follow-ups from Kelly 'Sandwagon' Pipes, Murray 'Advantage member' Harrold and Nick from Broadland Travel.

A new report from industry analyst Plimsoll says that 69 travel agency companies are perfect targets for acquisition. 

We don't have much more than that on it, but that's enough to prompt a couple of interesting questions:

Update: Travolution has a bit more - Plimsoll also found 10% of leading operators (93 companies) are equally 'ripe'.

Who's buying?

So there are some tempting prospects out there. But in Plimsoll's own words, they are "businesses that are currently undervalued yet, with help, can be turned around."

With help?

Most big players are tightening their belts, and - as per Ian Taylor's recent interview with Thomas Cook boss Manny Fontenla-Novoa - 'preparing for a tough year'.

Surely nabbing a small company with an upward trajectory (as TUI recently did with Adventure Tours Australia) is preferable to retooling one on the way down?

Which leads you to...

What kind of businesses are they?

All kinds of things to think about here.

What's the location? What other businesses are competing for local custom? If shop traffic is weak, is there an online side to the business?

Who are the customers? Is there a core of repeat clients to build on? Based on the average age, income and family status, are these people who are likely to cut travel spend during the recession?

Got niche? Is there expertise in the business that a little marketing muscle could turn into an attractive USP?

Job implications?

It comes down to those those two words again: 'with help'.

Turning a struggling business around means cutting costs and/or increasing performance, and we don't need to be explicit about what that can mean for staff.

And finally: if you were to buy a travel business in 2009, would it be an agency?

Last night travel agent and born-again Twitter user Murray Harrold asked me for some advice on getting his Advantage Twitter group off the ground.

Here's an extended version of my reply - mainly generic advice, with a few specific bits thrown in.

1. Search for existing users

Use Twitter search tools to look up potential members who are already on the Blue'Un.

Twitter Search will look through the body of tweets to see what people have talked about; Twellow will search user profiles to see how they describe themselves.

2. Look for existing communities elsewhere

If you can reach an existing community you'll be hitting the ground running. So Murray could search e.g. Facebook for Advantage groups.

Let's save him the trouble, though - I've tried, and there aren't any. D'oh.

3. Try head office

No guarantees here, but if you're part of a big organisation you might be able to get promotion on internal newsletters, member websites, that kind of thing.

I've contacted Advantage to ask what Murray could try. More soon, hopefully.

Update: Sales and marketing director Colin O'Neill from has got back to me with some details...

There are three main ways Murray could promote his group internally: a print newsletter; the company intranet; and a twice-weekly email newsletter. The business development team (headed up by David Moon) would be the first port of call.

In summary: it's always worth asking. If you're part of a ready-made network, make the most of it...

4. Finally! A use for trade media

Like head offices, we can offer a certain amount of reach - and I'm in favour of us using it to support independent community ideas like this, so you can probably count on a post here.

See? We're not toilet roll, as an anonymous blogger suggested last week.

5. Find a shared experience

So you've got your users. Now you need something to galvanise the group. In the trade media WTM 2008 was probably our tipping point.

Identify an issue or an event - Murray could use the Advantage Conference, though that's a way off yet - and make your group part of it. Set up a hashtag, embed a search widget on a public page, run a competition. Whatever works.

So that's what I'd try. Hopefully this isn't all obvious. I'll watch Murray's group with interest...

This caught my ear on the radio earlier - Barclays has released a report suggesting that family-run businesses are better-placed to ride out the recession.

The beeb interviewed the boss of Bettys & Taylors, the family-run business that makes TW favourite Yorkshire Tea.

While stopping short of saying family ownership is a get-out-of-jail-free card, he argued that family businesses focus on the long term, with 'stewardship' replacing the rather less responsible attitude the public now associate with corporate leaders like Sir Fred Goodwin.

That may or may not be true - one suspects that the prosaic truth is that well-run companies will survive, and badly-run ones won't.

Anyway, I'm canvassing Twitter followers about it. One reply so far, coming from a Travel Counsellor posting as Phewtus:

Yep, I'm a Travel Counsellor and we have the Speakman Dynasty and business is very good...

I'll post more responses if and when they come in.

Travel Weekly held its annual supplier awards last night.

Agents vote for most of them, but eight are decided by consumers. Where awards overlap, consumers and agents sometimes come to different conclusions.

When reading these, bear in mind that agents and consumers inevitably have different angles - consumers may be basing their decision on a single holiday, agents on an ongoing record of support and complaint resolution.

So on the understanding that this isn't about one party being right and the other wrong, take a look and comment away...

Rail operator

• Agents chose: Eurostar
• Consumers chose: Virgin Trains

Long haul operator

• Agents chose: Kuoni
• Consumers chose: Virgin Holidays

(Though agents did name V-Hols best US, Canada and Caribbean operator.)

Cruise company

• Agents chose: Fred Olsen, Royal Caribbean International, Hurtigruten and Silversea
• Consumers chose: P&O Cruises

Hotel chain

• Agents chose: RIU (leisure), Hilton (business)
• Consumers chose: Hilton

European short breaks

• Agents chose: Superbreak
• Consumers chose: Thomas Cook Signature

...and if you haven't seen them yet, here are the full list of winners and our videos and photos from the night.

I love this. Our chief reporter Juliet recently interviewed an 89-year-old travel agent - almost certainly Britain's oldest - and got some photos of material from his archive.

Last week we ran a story about an agent who saw business improve after he started charging for brochures.

Funevents.com charges £1 for a brochure, gives you a receipt, then offers you a £5 discount if/when you book. Sales for July and August increased 20%.

Anyway, that week's homepage poll wrote itself: how many other Travel Weekly readers would consider putting a charge on brochures?

Here are the results - I'll leave the commenting to you. Particularly interested in what consumers have to say.

• We already do - 4% (9 votes)
• Why not? Looks like it works - 64% (143 votes)
• No. Brochures should be free - 32% (72 votes)

Interesting phone call from an independent travel agency today (I'm not going to name them, hence the lack of links).

It had launched earlier in the year, and its name was virtually identical to that of a recently collapsed agency in the very same area.

The problem? When you type the new agency's name into Google, the top result is a Travel Weekly story about the old agency going out of business.

The story is factually correct, and clearly dated months before the new agency even opened its doors.

So my caller asked that we clarified the distinction, and I placed a line at the end of the article to reassure any worried consumers who land there (I'm nice like that).

But the request laid bare how much work some small agencies need to do towards understanding and leveraging search. Here's how the decision process could have looked:

1. We want to use this name
2. But it comes with baggage
3. The baggage is archived online
4. We need to make sure we rank above the baggage

That means building a website with ninja SEO, which might incur more cost or manpower than an independent start-up can spare.

But the cost of not doing it, as these guys found, is worried customers.

Ultimately the choice was between keeping the name and spraying cash on SEO consultants, or choosing a different name and saving a few bob.

And while Travel Weekly supports independent agents, we can't fundamentally alter correct stories to mitigate the results of getting that decision wrong.

Like it or not, it's every man for himself on the Google Plains...

Interesting. Consumer reviews of travel agents. This is a US thing - could we see one for the UK?

The closest TW has to this is our Mystery Shopper.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

This weekend some of the TW team is in Sitges, Spain, to cover the Advantage conference.

Nathan will be live blogging here, our publishing director Simon Ferguson will be delivering a keynote speech on the results of a survey we have carried out with Advantage (here is a teaser story), I will be chairing a session on cruise and Kevin May (Mr Travolution) will be running a session on booking online.

There should be lots of interesting news and reaction from this large independent agent consortium. 

We will be pulling all the content together on this Advanatge conference page.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

Here's Thomson and First Choice's joint TV ad, designed to reassure travel consumers - and make the case for booking with a big, stable travel company in unsettled times.

It debuted during long-running comedy police show The Bill last night.

Reassured? You know where the comments section is...

TW's sister publication Personnel Today is running a live blog/chat from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development conference in Harrogate.

The session is entitled 'Surviving and Thriving through Turbulence' and should provide the HR professional's perspective on people management in tough economic times.

Register and you can get involved in the session.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

This is the press release sent out by the Triton board today. It is the basis of the TW story, TTG story and Travelmole story.

John McEwan has responded to the release.

I'll be posting more of analysis of the story shortly.

Here is the press release:

Triton has today removed John McEwan from the chair of the consortium with immediate effect.

In addition, Advantage Travel Centres has been given one month's notice to leave Triton. After that time, Advantage agents will not have access to the exclusive deals available to Triton members.

The move follows the decision by McEwan to serve notice that Advantage will leave Triton at the end of the year.

This press release has just landed from the Association of Independent Tour Operators.

Aim: Blatant attempt to big up independent tour operators and their agents on the back of the launch of a particle accelerator. 

Does it work? Well, it made me laugh but will it get punters booking holidays? I think not. That said, if the accelerator does create a black hole into which we all fall, then thanks AITO for providing me a laugh on my last working day. Here is the press release . . .  

CERN's particle accelerator gizmo starts up tomorrow and if you believe the doomsday prophets, we won't be around to take any holidays from Thursday onwards!

As if we haven't enough to worry about with a miserable economic outlook and shocking weather, European boffins are about to fire up their new plaything tomorrow and possibly have the Earth sucked into a black hole.

File under 'so crazy it might just work'. CNN's lifestyle channel has an article on how improv techniques can improve your performance in meetings and negotiations.

Clearly travel agnecy counter staff aren't going to run out and join improv circles, but there are some interesting techniques here that could be worked into roleplaying exercises (which are common in sales training programmes anyway).

It's broken down into three key tips:

• The "yes...and" technique
• Go with your gut
• Make everyone else in your group look good

Respectively they focus on sustaining and directing a conversation; avoiding awkward silences; and keeping energy and ideas moving.

If you don't fancy jumping in with both feet, CNN suggests watching a few episodes of largely improvised sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm - very much the kind of training TW Blog would sign up for.

(Via Lifehacker.)

Travel Weekly's Edward Robertson was recently interviewed by NBC about the growth in the stag and hen party market. Here's the footage.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

According to the Guardian, yesterday Spanish tourist board Turespaña predicted that the weak pound and economic downturn would hit classic packages and 14-day holidays, leaving Spain in a bit of a pickle.

Instead, destinations such as Egypt and Turkey which can offer more competitive holidays will draw the tourists away from Spain.

Well, guess what? Spain has just been knocked off the top of Co-operative Travel's lates market sales charts by none other than... Turkey.

Director of retail distribution Trevor Davis said the strength of the euro against the pound and capacity cuts to Spain following consolidation of the big four, which has led to a lack of available low-price late Spanish breaks, were the key reasons for the change

With a British Chambers of Commerce report indicating we could be headed for full-blown recession, one wonders what the UK's summer holiday league tables will look like in a few years' time...

A heads-up for TW Blog's travel agent and operator readers - we're running a survey on ABTA's subscription fee hike. It's only ten questions, and you don't have to be an ABTA member.

(Non-trade readers: there's a poll for you at the bottom of this post.)

Hit the link to launch the survey in a new window.

If anyone took it yesterday, I've tweaked it a bit since then, making the free-text questions optional. I noticed the non-completion rate was a bit too high.

...and here's a quick poll to see what, if anything, other readers think:

A columnist in Personnel Today - one of TW's many sister publications - has blogged on skiving workers who are currently spending three hours a week at work searching for holidays.

But, wonders said columnist, how do agents skive?

maybe agents won't have time to skive if that time spent researching holidays converts into sales :-)

Martin Couzins, managing editor

Travel Weekly reporter Edward Robertson attended Cox & Kings' 250th anniversary bash last night...

Cox & Kings celebrated their 250th anniversary in style last night by throwing a dinner for their 100 top-selling agents.

Held at The Royal Garden Hotel Kensington, the event proved to be a lively affair with pre-dinner drinks, dinner, a band and more post-dinner drinks all taken care of by the operator.

A prize draw with seven luxury trips given away also guaranteed certain guests had mile-wide smiles by the end of the evening.

The evening proved a lot of fun, and agents were quick to explain what makes Cox & Kings stand out:

World Market Travel co-owners Peter and Tim Giles, who had travelled up from Bath:

It's really down to the places that they go to like South America or India that means you can't beat them. They have the best guides who know 100% what they're talking about and with the small groups they organise they're very different from other companies.

We know our clients will be treated in the manner they expect which you don't always get with other operators.

...and Bailey's Travel managing director Chris Bailey:

They take customers to places like India and South America that you can't send people to yourself.

Edward Robertson, reporter

Travel trade association ABTA has unveiled a new website, and it's a vast improvement - though the old one hardly had it goin' on, as I'm sure even ABTA would admit.

It's a more consumer-focused affair, with centre stage taken by a member directory. Users can search the database by destination and activity, giving them a pretty good way of tracking down reliable travel specialists.

I, for example, found a list of agencies that could do me a cricket holiday in Belgium. (I was just testing it.)

Specialist business is likely to be important to agents as straightforward bookings migrate to online retailers, so this is a good move from ABTA. The question is whether the association can raise its consumer profile sufficiently to drive traffic to the resource.

There's also some iffy usability under the 'Find a Holiday' menu item - this ought to take you directly to a search form, but brings up two lines of text that direct you elsewhere.

The new site also features prominent offers on the homepage, and a nice events page with a calendar widget.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Here is a list of today's headlines from the conference.

Colin Heal to step down as Triton chairman

Portillo advises agents to 'embrace change'

Keith Wilson 'will add value' in consultant role

TTA speaks out over Worlchoice merger

Gold Medal introduces 0800 numbers

Agents told to promote themselves locally

Tour operators defend direct sell strategies

Cruise passengers could trable in five years, says ACE

Agents told to add value in economic downturn

McEwan confident Advantage agents will attend 2009 Triton conference

Martin Couzins, online editor

Triton - which is made up of the Global Travel Group, Worldchoice UK and Advantage Travel Centres - is having its annual conference in Palma, Majorca, this weekend and TW has three members of the news team reporting. Here are the headlines from day one.

Triton will no longer operate as a joint buying group

Agents to pay £18 a booking for ATOL scheme

Agents told to link financial and marketing strategies

Independent sector held back by 'poor standards'

Triton calls for stronger links with ABTA

Agents call for more focus on members

Group considering dynamic packaging cruise offering

Martin Couzins, online editor

Competition from outside the travel sector has been on the trade's mind for years, so it's interesting to read that three out of bed bank hotelconnect.com's seven top distributors are non-travel.

Hotelconnect.com's commercial manager spoke of 'gaps in the distribution channel' and said that agents who fail to promote city breaks are 'driving clients into the arms of aggregation sites' - with obvious effects on commission.

In recent years white label deals have made it easy for generalist retail brands to slap their logo on existing travel technology. See for instance:

• Woolworths and PPA Group
• John Lewis and Expedia
• Tesco and lastminute.com

It's been said before, but retail and media face some similar challenges, as the internet continues to disrupt their traditional reliance on one channel (the high street and print respectively).

Here in the meeja we distribute through our own print and online properties. We send out email products. We syndicate content through RSS feeds, podcast and video directories and so on. We use social networks and micro-blogging services such as Twitter. We're sweating channels (and yes, it stings a bit).

What causes that analogy to break down is that content producers like us control the multitude of channels, while agents are one of the channels and have to compete with the rest.

But - without wishing to sound like Alan Sugar - that's business. New guys will always come onto the scene, and the way to beat them will always be to have a better proposition, well marketed.

And that brings us back to familiar themes: going for niche, yield-over-volume business; providing personal touches; getting product training. The stuff, in short, that Woolworths could never do...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Breaking news: ABTA and Federation of Tour Operators to merge on 1 July.

This has been four years in the making, according to discussions in TW towers.

We'll update the article as more details come in, and post any interesting links here.

UPDATE: Joint ABTA and FTO press release.

Not wanting to miss out on the buzz surrounding the announcement of this year's Apprentice hopefuls, TW Blog is happy to see a former travel industry employee has made the programme.

According to the Unreality TV blog, Claire Young laims to be the only convent-educated girl to have survived three summers in Magaluf for Club 18-30.

Her motto - JDI - means “just do it”. Let's hope she does :-)

Catch up BBC - its Apprentice site has yet to list the new candidates.

Martin Couzins, online editor

The Tracking Tourism Blog has a provocative post about tourism after 'peak oil' (i.e. when global resources are no longer sufficient to meet demand).

The party could soon be over and Peak Oil could start to radically upset our current notions of travel and tourism. As costs rise, the world will become smaller again - although there will nevertheless still be opportunities.

It's not a comfortable thought. We would, as TT points out, be forced to travel more locally. Where might this leave agents?

There is certainly potential for earning commission in the domestic market, but if overall choice dwindles and the product itself becomes more familiar, what will the role of the trade be?

You might see a difference in kind, where agents focus on organisation and perform a concierge-type function. Or you might see a difference in scale, where the role remains the same but the shrinking market can sustain fewer jobs.

Or both?

Answers on a postcard in the comments section please...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Darren Phillips, of Darren Phillips Travel, South Shields, celebrates victory in the higher and lower quiz at Travel Weekly's dynamic packaging roadshow in Newcastle. What a celebration - could this set the standard in agent celebrations when winning a prize? Many thanks to all the agents who made it along and a big thanks to our sponsors.

See also: travel agents get spiritual and travel agents talk dynamic packaging.

Martin Couzins, online editor

This is another side to the Travel Weekly dynamic packaging roadshows. No, the agents who attended our Cheshire event at Mere Golf and Country Club last night were not put in a trance. They were in fact being entertained by magician/comedian Dom Moses.

Another busy evening and lots of agents brushing up on the latest supplier developments. Off to Newcastle for the last roadshow of the week . . .

Martin Couzins, online editor

Following the success of last year's awards, TW has launched its 2008 agent achievement awards.

The awards are regional - covering the Midlands, Southwest/Wales, Northern and Southeast - and include 10 catgories. New categories for this year are most innovative agency and best business travel team. Find out more at the awards website.

Martin Couzins, online editor

It is good to see a piece of Holiday Which? research which comes out on the side of travel agents - let's face it, this doesn't happen very often. It was particularly interesting to note that of the respondents to the Holiday Which? survey that used travel agents, 81% felt they’d received honest, trustworthy advice.

Trust is key for consumers and online players are still grappling with the issue. Agents are in a position of strength here because consumers still want face to face advice and transactions.

A search on 'trust' on the Travolution blog reveals some interesting discussion points around consumers' trust of online players.

Martin Couzins, online editor

We all know the golden age of travel was a gentler time but it’s always nice to have it reaffirmed. This is why here at TW we are bringing to your attention this email from one of our many great agents, Eton Travel retail assistant manager Elaine Kane.

She spent her weekend ripping up carpets and in the process found a load of newspapers dated September 1957 which had been used as lining.

While there was the normal (rather dated) scandals about a doctor admitting to be homosexual on TV and an actress in court accused of “making violent love in the back row of a cinema”, there was also this rather charming travel story.

Elaine writes . . .

“The travel story of the day was a BOAC plane that was taking passengers from London to Trinidad. It took off from London, landed in Glasgow to pick up passengers and refuelled then set off on its way.

“On approaching Newfoundland, where it was due to land for refuelling, the pilot found the airport closed due to fog, so radioed back to London to say he was turning back.

"Most of the pax were asleep and did not know that they were heading back to London until they landed. They had spent 16 hours getting nowhere! Amazingly, they were pacified with tea and sandwiches before being put back on the plane to do the journey all over again!! Glad they weren’t my customers!!”

Of course had they been Elaine’s customers we are sure they wouldn’t have caused too much of a fuss. After all in those days the stiff upper lip never weakened, even when on holiday.

Ed Robertson, reporter

Interesting piece in The Observer which looks at some travel agencies that are being launched on the high street - at a time when high street shops are closing.

The piece highlights the value of the travel agent as personal travel advisor. For all the benefits of the web and telephone, there is no beating the personal touch. And this is especially so for more complex itineraries and higher value bookings.

Sounds like Black Tomato's new shop in Shoreditch, London, could be worth a look. It will be open till 9pm, has a bar, and every second month will be redecorated to reflect a different destination. Customers have to book for an appointment though.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Some bitesize stuff on Worldchoice's deal with the Travel Trust Association (that's right: TTA beat Stella after all, though Worldchoice insists the decision was nothing to do with concern about the latter's future).

• The merger is worth £6 million
• March has been pencilled in as a completion date
• Shareholders will be offered £2.75 a share
• TTA (2007) will invest in a five-year trust fund for Worldchoice members; payouts will be based on performance and could reach £20,000
• Worldchoice boss Colin Heal does not anticipate any redundancies

UPDATE: we have some follow-up stories online - Worldchoice will stay part of Triton under the deal, and the TTA will not be looking to cut costs in the wake of the merger.

Nathan Midgley, web prodcuer

Here are the details of a request for a quote a customer sent to a travel agent yesterday.

The customer wanted five nights in Dubai and was not prepared to pay more than £30 per room per night – making that a maximum booking of £150. The booking was for one adult and one child.

The customer had sent the e-mail to 33 travel agents. As the agent who sent this on to us said

Just see how ridiculous it is getting out there, e-mailing so many agents over a booking which earns the agent £15. We advised the client that we would be unable to assist."

As an agent (I know not all our readers are, so if you're not, just pretend...) is this a booking that you would pursue? Or is a client who has approached so many people in search of the cheapest booking a lost cause?

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

Last week I asked Travolution readers whether small travel agents can win over tough customers like recent Travel Weekly interviewee Chris Beddoe, who told us that she self-books online "because the only time I have to think about holidays is after 10pm".

I offered a (slightly spurious) choice: should agents invest in technology, or should they play to their traditional strengths?

Here's how the purple 'un's tech-savvy readers responded:

I think those agents that provide 24-hour, booking online are going to be the winners in the long term. It's great that smaller travel agencies are getting involved in the internet, but having a site which doesn't allow booking is pretty useless to me.
Darren Cronian

The Web lends itself perfectly for simple tasks such as flights, city trips, rental cars...but when you start combining these items it can easily take you hours. [People] will do it once or twice and then return to a savvy (!) agent because it's still more efficient.
Walter

I think agents should harvest on the disadvantages of the Web but they should also invest in tech support such as CRM. Not only are websites becoming more user friendly, they also become more savvy regarding your preferences. Once websites do this properly, agents will need to focus even more on niche offerings.
Gualterio

The point is that "booking" is not where agents add value. It's in "finding" and "recommending" particularly if what you want is unusual or undefined. Agents need new models that allow them to get paid for playing to their strengths.
DJ

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Thanks to Michael on the Flight Global blog for this piece of Dutch delight. The video features a Boeing 737 landing on water and is all done in the name of promotion for Dutch travel company X-travel. No surprises it's a Dutch thing - remember the the Pimp MyTravel competition?
Martin Couzins, online editor

A new post from regular guest contributor Brian Hordon of Silversea Cruises UK...

Travel industry predictions for the coming year always make interesting reading, and I admire the people who put their thoughts in the public domain. Get it right and nobody notices; get it wrong and you will be castigated!

The credit crunch, alongside several other negative economic factors, will contribute enormously towards a difficult trading year for the travel industry, but neither trade nor consumer publications appear to be focusing on the top end of the market, which can often be less susceptible to changing conditions - a market segment which has come to see travel as a necessity.

The Travel Weekly top 10 New Year Destinations for 2007 was led by Tenerife, New York, Bangkok, Sydney and Johannesburg (the next five include Cape Town, Melbourne and more) - one volume destination followed by four "big ticket" destinations. And high value product is further endorsed in bullish style by Passenger Shipping Association director Bill Gibbons in his 2008 cruise predictions.

The volume market may well take time to deliver satisfactory results, but luxury travel and other high revenue business could well be the trading salvation for those creative and aggressive travel agents prepared to have a go.

The UK travel industry has consistenly demonstrated its resilience during difficult trading periods, and I have no doubt that 2008 will see a repeat of this attitude; this is possibly best endorsed by Travelcare of Tamworth who achieved a spectacular score of 99% for a Caribbean holiday enquiry in a recent Mystery Shopper (Travel Weekly 4th January 2008). This should be the pacesetter for 2008 for every UK travel agent.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd

There have been a few developments in stories I mentioned before Christmas, so here's a quick update for those who don't subscribe to Travel Weekly's news feed (hint...).

The Travelscope administrators told us that they had spoken to 'interested parties', but that the Christmas break is likely to scupper any rescue deal.

On the operator front, Shearings has been able to offer some Travelscope customers places on similar trips, and "gave very good rates to customers who were due to depart on Friday and booked with us to go away the next day."

On the agent front, our news desk spoke to representatives of Advantage and Co-operative Travel, who said that agents who had made a Travelscope booking were working hard to salvage their clients' holiday plans (which, of course, is one of the benefits of using an agent).

Expect more disruption in the new year as BAA staff go ahead with strikes. Talks failed to avert a series of walkouts, which will affect all seven BAA airports on January 7, 14 and 17-18.

Another company has also given up the ghost: all-business class airline MAXjet filed for bankruptcy on Christmas Eve. Rival carrier Silverjet is offering seats to customers who were due to fly between London and New York.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

After five hectic days in Cape Town, South Africa, the 40 agents taking part in the Kuoni Worldwide Diploma final had the chance to let their hair down.

The event culminated in a fantastic evening at the Gold of Africa Museum, where they were treated to a tour of the museum followed by a tasting menu of traditional food in the museum’s newly-opened courtyard restaurant, courtesy of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the official destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape.

The evening included the chance to join in some traditional African drumming. Pictured are (left) Sara Short from Bath Travel in Fareham and Kathryn Skeates from Travelcare in Ringwood, Hampshire.

Two agents were also named Worldwide Consultant and Advanced Worldwide Consultant of the Year 2007 – check out next week’s edition of Travel Weekly for exclusive interviews with the winners.

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

Quick heads-up for blog readers. The industry saw some more consolidation yesterday: Harvey World Travel owner Stella Group announced that it has bought Triton member Global Travel Group.

The deal will create the largest independent network of travel agents in the UK. Full story on the website.

The first full day of the Kuoni Worldwide Diploma Final in Cape Town, South Africa, and the group went to a classroom of a different kind.
The morning was spent wine tasting at the Neethlingshof Wine Estate.

Pictured are: Ingrid Philpott, travel consultant at Bath Travel in Romsey (left) and Debbie Drummond, travel consultant, Going Places, Woking, tasting their first sauvignon blanc of the day - there were plenty more to follow!

After, the group stopped at the Spier Estate, which also includes the Cheetah Outreach project, where the animals are reared in captivity.

Pictured is Simone Crane, travel consultant at Hart Travel in Fleet with a seven month old cub.
"It purred like a kitten and was very docile," said Simone.

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

Travel Weekly's Skills Zone editor Emily Ashwell is off to Cape Town with agents taking Kuoni Worldwide Diploma Final. Here is her first post.

Agents set off for Cape Town, South Africa, last night for the Kuoni Worldwide Diploma Final.
They will spend five days in and around the city, before sitting their final paper on Monday.
The work started on the flight out, where agents were given the first part of the Diploma Final to complete.

Pictured are (left) Sarah Day, senior travel consultant, Midlands Co-op from Birstall, Leicestershire, with Joanne Cross, travel consultant, Midlands Co-op, Beaumont Leys, Leicestershire.
Martin Couzins, online editor

Very interesting post on Travel Rants looking at fees for name changes on flight tickets. Not sure this is still applicable with flights being sold direct online.

Martin Couzins, online editor

This week Travel Weekly has reported that the over-50s are taking more holidays and that hoteliers need to cash in on the older generation. As the population ages and remains healthier for longer, increasing numbers of older people are becoming more adventuruous with their spare time.

The news that Saga has launched a social networking service should therefore come as no surprise. The Times reports that the over-50s account for nearly one third of the total time spent on the internet in Britain.

13,000 people have signed up in four months and the forums look well used. Check out the travel forum to see what's being talked about.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Our first agent reporter assignment is currently under way.

Audrey Singh, a Hays Travel homeworker, is currently in Puerto Rico at the 30th Annual Caribbean Tourism Conference. We'll be hearing from Audrey on her return.

(Regular readers will know that Agent Reporter has attracted some controversy - read TW Blog's response.)

Martin Couzins, online editor

Some sceptical responses to Travel Weekly's Agent Reporter scheme have come in. I think it's worth dealing with each of the objections raised in turn…

- Travel agents don’t have journalism skills

To be accepted as an Agent Reporter, agents will have to show specialist training, knowledge and experience, as well as reasonable writing ability.

We - like all comparable media - have long commissioned industry columnists on the same criteria. If an agent fulfils them too, why shouldn’t he or she produce the odd bit of content?

- Travel Weekly's content will suffer

ARs will be reporting back from trade events and fam trips, not covering news beats. We won’t cut back on professional content.

As for quality of writing, AR work will go through the editorial process (sub-editors, desk heads and the rest) like any other article.

- Agents have nothing to say

There are more than 10,000 agent reviews on Travel Weekly's sister online service Gazetteers.com.

Not every one of those reviewers is an expert. But many agents know their stuff. All we are doing is giving a few talented individuals the chance to demonstrate their product knowledge to clients and colleagues.

- Agent Reporters will neglect their jobs

It’s up to managers whether or not they allow their staff to apply. While the scheme will not suit every business, we think some managers will see AR work as potentially beneficial to both agent and agency.

Not only will published work prove an agent’s knowledge of their specialism, it will also earn them points on the ABTA/ITT Accredited Travel Professional scheme.

I hope that clears a few things up. Comments?

An interesting discussion point from the message board of Travel Weekly's Facebook group (Facebook member? Come join us). Select World Travel's Lee Harrison writes:

Recently we were quoted a price of £1945.00 for a Queen Mary Cruise. The price included a 45% discount. Then we're told by the client she's been quoted a price of £1395.00 by XYZ Cruise Club. Why discount a premium product that's already been given a good discount by the cruise pperator? We all know what happened to Cruise Control!

Are we changing the cruise product too much? Will more capacity on superliners be encouraging a " Benidorm" at Sea, especially with cruise clubs discounting to such ridiculous levels?

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Select World Travel's Lee Harrison contacts TW Blog to say that one of his consultant's travel videos a video featuring one of his consutants is up for an award on Weshow.com.

Karen Wratten filmed was at Beachcomber's 18th Birthday Party held in Mauritius, and a very well put together video it is too.

(It transpires the video is actually the work of Enigma FX - Select World Travel just attended the fam and posted the video on its blog. Apols for the confusion.)

Looks like everyone had a great time, if not a relaxing one - if anyone suffers from the delusion that agent fams are an excuse to put your feet up for a few days, they should give it a watch.

Anyway, it's good to see an independent agency producing this kind of content. If you like the video go and vote for it (requires registration). Good luck to Karen, Lee & co.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Regular contributor Brian Hordon reflects on Travel Weekly's Mystery Shopper feature as Cruise Month draws to a close...

It had to happen during cruise month: Mystery Shopper went looking for a cruise holiday. The result? An excellent outright winner and a variety of scores for the other agents.

As for the agents who scored lower, it is difficult to apportion blame - I certainly have sympathy for the sales consultants who were the focus of Mystery Shopper's attention.

Lack of knowledge, lack of awareness of cruising, lack of confidence, lack of training? It is easy to "point the finger", but I see the Mystery Shopper exercise as an opportunity.

How many travel agents actually incorporate the weekly Mystery Shopper feature into their in-house training? The script is in place, the subject is clearly defined; the discussion can be based upon:

• How would our front line sales consultants handle this question?
• What products would we have proposed?
• How would we have closed the sales discussion?

Mystery Shopper can appear a little harsh when reviewed after the event; but used positively, it can be yet another superb resource - especially for cruising.

And of course the feature included five selling tips by Andy Harmer from the Association of Cruise Experts - another invaluable resource for all levels of sales consultants.

Final point; I have every Mystery Shopper featuring cruise requests from the very beginning (yes, I know, how sad!), and with literally a couple of exceptions the score card remains very similar to the latest mystery shopper.

Don't despair, Luton, just adopt a positive attitude and learn from the experience.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

This comes from our features reporter Janine Kelso...

I recently joined Thomas Cook's top 100 agents as they were flown to Antigua in recognition of their hard work.

Staying in the newly-built Mediterranean suites at Sandals Grande Antigua, we were wowed by the rooms - four-poster king-size beds, whirlpool baths and (big enough for two) rain showers.

The champagne breakfast has also went down well.

Eric Clapton and Giorgio Armani have homes on the island and Eddie Murphy (complete with embarrassingly-large entourage), 50 Cent and Danny Glover have all visited. But the agents got their own taste of fame this week when news of their arrival on the island was broadcast on local TV and radio stations.

Representatives from Thomas Cook and the Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office told reporters that the incentive trip was beneficial to the island as it would help the agents to sell it with passion when they returned home.

Thomas Cook said it was the first time that one of their trips had drawn so much interest from the local press. The news report was screened at 6am and those agents who rose early enough to watch it were thrilled to see themselves on TV.

While here at Travel Weekly we are always writing about just how much travel agents still have to play for in the modern market, it is nice to see the proof of it too.

A recent requirement for return flights to San Francisco during the half term week (gulp!) left me spending time in the office searching numerous websites for a half decent price which would have been better spent in the pub.

So remembering my old friend Eton Travel Agency retail travel assistant manager Elaine Kane, who last year helped me out of a sticky situation in Beijing involving several large beers, two plates of kidney kebabs and a drunken member of the Chinese secret police, I turned to her for some help.

Not only did she source the flights quicker than I could but she made several changes without a single complaint, dealt with the airline’s demands for Advanced Passenger Information and most importantly got me the best price by more than £20. A result all round!

With flight consolidators like Gold Medal and Travel 2/4 still pledging to work exclusively with the industry I am sure there are prices out there for agents to access which the general public can’t and with a service charge (more than fair enough for the work put in by Elaine) we are left with both happy agents and customers.

Edward Robertson

Some interesting reaction to our odd client requests competition, a few of the responses to which appeared on the back page of last week’s Travel Weekly.

Alex Bainbridge at Tour CMS Travel UCD (Travel UCD is the company, Tour CMS the product - my mistake) acknowledges that the contest is 'a bit of a giggle', but worries that 'this attitude to client requests will be damaging to agents in the long run'. (For the record, TW isn't actually suggesting that you laugh clients out of the shop - but we think you knew that.)

He points out, with some justification, that

Standard bookings will, now and in the future, be handled by customers booking online. Therefore bookings with special requests or unusual questions will become the norm for high street travel agents…. so agents should be welcoming special requests

Cat Salt from advertising agency Orchestra emailed with a point that complements this nicely. Some odd-sounding requests, she observes, aren't odd at all:

'Finding out the size of the steps into the transfer coach' clearly identifies someone travelling with limited mobility. For people with a disability, the difference between 3 and 5 steps and between narrow and wide steps can be the difference between access, assisted access and no access

Good spot. Special requests, Alex continues, can expose a lack of product knowledge and customer service skills on the part of the agent – effectively driving the customer to the tour operator to book direct.

While the idea that all agents are poorly informed and just scrape by selling meat-and-potatoes product is at best a little patronising, the emphasis on knowledge and service is an accurate analysis of the challenges facing the trade – and one that Brian Hordon has frequently made in these very pages.

Still time to get your entries in – and why not tell us how you dealt with the request too?

Nathan Midgley, web producer

This post comes from Gill Hartigan, winner of the Agent Excellence Award for best sales consultant, small agency, in the Southwest and Wales.

Next week the Caribbean Tourism Organisation will be holding its ‘Courses for the Caribbean 2007’ event in Oxford.

I’ll be going along. I run the weddings and honeymoons department at Howard Travel, so I’m on the lookout for new wedding opportunities for both the company and my clients.

Meeting contacts from the various exhibitors is also useful, especially if you need some expert advice. And of course I’m also hoping to gain knowledge and information that will add to the pleasure of experiencing the islands myself.

Here are my three favourite Caribbean bookings:

• A wedding at the Radisson Cable Beach in Grand Bahamas. It was for 19 passengers with a total cost of over £23,000. I found it most enjoyable, challenging and very rewarding – and it sparked the idea for the wedding department within Howard Travel.



• Last year I booked a wedding at The Beach Club in Antigua for 20 passengers at a total cost of £22,000. The resort is a favourite of mine, in particular the superior rooms which have direct access to the beach.



• In November I have a wedding booked for 13 passengers at the all-inclusive Holiday Village Golden Beach in the Dominican Republic. Their child prices go up to the age of 14 years and they have four-bedded rooms, so I was able to keep the price down to £10,700.

What’s your best booking to the Caribbean? And if you attended the Durham CTO training event, what selling tips did you pick up?

Gill Hartigan, Howard Travel

More from Cruise Month - here's homeworker Andrew Fox, a member of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, on a visit to Oceania Cruises' Regatta. Our Kelly Ranson was there with the camera.

Andrew makes the well-rehearsed, but no less true, point that ship visits are indispensable to successful cruise sales - and you can read more about how he developed his own travel business in Skills Zone.

More video, sales tips, ship reports and other useful stuff on the Cruise Month page.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

We are getting a lot of response to our funny customer request competition - it's amazing what some holiday bookers ask their travel agent for.

Here are some of the entries we've had so far...

A couple of years ago when I was working on the High Street I had a gentleman who came into the office and in all seriousness told me he would like to go to the Sea of Tranquility.

We had advertised a mystery coach tour in our window. The client came in asking where the mystery coach tour was going. Had to explain it was a mystery tour and he would not find out until he boarded the coach.

A customer who booked to stay in Orlando requested a sea view room. I had to explain that Orlando was quite a way from the sea.

If you're a travel agent, get your entry in - you could win £50 of M&S vouchers.

Martin Couzins, online editor

A new post from regular contributor Brian Hordon (Silversea Cruises UK)

It might seem like a long term project, but travel industry employers should welcome plans for a Travel and Tourism Diploma with open arms.

The element which particularly caught my imagination was the focus on "customer service skills". Call me sad, but I often judge aspects of business upon the initial greeting.

Eye contact is in danger of becoming extinct in many retail areas. While I understand the necessity of focusing on the screen, the cash till or the ticket machine, there is still nothing that gets close to a warm, enthusiastic, positive greeting.

Having the opportunity to influence the way in which customer contact skills are taught - alongside other areas of the curriculum - is nothing short of spectacular.

Holiday products will continue to do a great job of educating agents about destinations, hotels and attractions, and internet training programmes will continue to expand.

But when a customer when is greeted by a professionally trained travel sales person - whether in a store or on the phone - he or she has the feeling that this person really cares and wants to help. Can a screen or a script recreate that warmth?

If you think this new diploma is just another academic qualification for the travel industry, it's probably because you do not intend to accept the invitation to present ideas for course content - an invitation which as far as I can see is quite unique within the world of business.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

With the Travel Weekly Northern Agent Excellence Awards just around the corner – 20 September – it was heartening to hear the positive effect winning such an award can have.

Sally Beckinsale, branch manager, Fred Olsen Travel, Felixstowe, Suffolk won best manager - small agency in the Midlands awards. I met her today and she told me that as a result of winning she had been featured in the local newspaper and a local magazine. She also included news of the win in the shop’s regular email to clients and keeps the trophy on her desk in the shop.

She said the PR created a good buzz amongst the customer base and local community and that it has helped business.

I interviewed Sally for Cruise Month and you can hear what she has to say about cruise on the site later this week.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Yesterday I was at the Hard Rock Cafe in London to meet the six agent winners of our London Calling competition. The agents and their families were all having a great time following the itineraries they had created for the competition.

Video interviews with the agents will be posted on the Travel Weekly web site later this week.

Here is the Wauld family pictured with Ian Mounser, sales director at Superbreak.

Thanks to Superbreak and Visit London for sponsoring the competition.

Thomas Cook Group has just posted its first interim management statement. Here are the highlights:

• TCG has reduced capacity year on year for summer 07 by 5%.
• Average selling prices are 1% up year on year.
• Trading is up compared to summer 2006 but the company has not been able to fully recover the increased cost of fuel by charging higher prices.
• Air Passenger Duty is costing TCG €60m.
• Bookings for summer 07 in Northern Europe are 2% ahead of 2006 on similar capacity and average selling prices are 4% up year on year.
• In Continental Europe, bookings for summer 2007 are 6% behind 2006 with average selling prices 2% ahead.
• The integration of Thomas Cook and MyTravel is progressing, with the company on course to beat the predicted savings of €140m.
• On 1 August 2007, the Group completed the acquisition of Czech travel company Travel Plus, for €3.1m.

And for future trading...

• Capacity on sale for winter 07/08 is expected to be 5% below that of 2006
• Cumulative bookings are 2% ahead of 2006, and in the last four weeks bookings are 9% ahead of 2006
• Average selling prices are 1% down year on year

Martin Couzins, online editor

This post comes from regular contributor Brian Hordon (Silversea Cruises UK)

Visit Britain plans to spend one million pounds promoting English rural tourism to the UK holiday market, and already television and newspaper adverts are appearing.

It is a campaign that will create new opportunities for creative travel agents, and represent a new challenge for many other agents.

I would suggest that in most travel agencies knowledge of overseas destinations, resorts and hotels far outweighs the equivalent knowledge of the United Kingdom; no doubt someone will take me to task on this, but the response will be interesting.

So the challenge is twofold. First, the travel agent needs to recognise a niche sales opportunity and ensure that appropriate operator and product knowledge and customer awareness of the United Kingdom as a viable sales alternative (or even a first choice) is included in business plan activity.

Second - and most thought provoking - the myriad of United Kingdom products need to move up a couple of gears to ensure that the features and benefits of their products become front of mind at the cutting edge of the retail travel agent market.

Just look at the demographics of the United Kingdom population, wealth control etc; many holidaymakers seek safety and security, ease of travel and good value - all widely available within the UK holiday "basket."

But those same holidaymakers are probably booking direct right now due to lack of awareness of how a good travel agent can help them.

Believe me, this can be reversed, so please recognise this superb opportunity and go for it. It can also make you money!

One million may not seem like a lot. But if it succeeds (and there is no reason why this highly creative campaign should not) I am sure more money will become available for promotional activity, so the need to be in place is paramount.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd

According to a survey by recruitment company Office Angels, most workers yearn for a return to the workplace of yesteryear with a tea trolley and work outings.

When asked what office traditions they would love to bring back:

• 39% (unsurprisingly) said taking a full hour for lunch
• 33% said they wanted an annual work outing,
• 29% wanted a subsidised canteen
• 26% opted to bring back the tea-trolley lady

There are some new office traditions that workers want to get rid of, with more than half fed up with the long hours culture and the habit of eating lunch at their desk.

What workplace tradition would you like to bring back or get rid of?

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

In an age when employers are being encouraged to give staff ever more flexibility, and technology means you can set up office practically anywhere, it’s no surprise the travel industry has seen a boom in homeworking.

So I wonder what you think about the comments of wannabe Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who believes we need to improve the country’s transport system because people are more productive in offices.

He says:

“Working at work may be unproductive, my friends, but working from home is simply a euphemism for sloth, apathy, staring out of the window and random surfing of the internet: and that is why it is so imperative that we get the transport system of this country moving.”

According to his blog, a day working from home involves the following:

“You polish off that bottle of wine at lunch, and then you have a snooze, and then you find the afternoon has gone as fast as the morning, and the children are back from school, and you have managed to spend a whole day "working from home" in which you have achieved two thirds of diddly squat.”

This TW news story begs to differ. So does this one. Come on homeworkers: tell us what it’s really like…

Image: John Hemming. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 2.0

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

This post comes from our regular guest poster Brian Hordon of Silversea Cruises UK

Nothing focuses the mind like adversity! My last post for TW Blog addressed my concern with the proliferation of events currently taking place in the travel industry, from consortia issues to mergers to environmental concerns.

The current postal dispute brought to mind another pressure area faced by travel agents: digesting the enormous volume of feature and advertising material which is published each week.

I won't go into the increasing importance of focused training in travel - I will blog on that another time.

But I will close this post by saying that I sincerely hope the sharp-end salespeople in the travel business walk with pride.

Their knowledge invariably embraces leisure travel, air and rail, cruising, hotels, car rental, destinations and resorts, airport parking, passport and visa inormation, computer skills, insurance and lots more.

And I haven't even mentioned the behind-the-scenes staff who deliver additional essential skills.

It sometimes takes a third-party issue - such as receiving an enormous volume of must-read material after having had no mail for a full week - to put things into perspective.

Incidentaly, I had no mail as mentioned, but I did have several e-communications introducing late sales opportunities, special pricing, thought provoking destination ideas. Is there a message here?

Brian Hordon
Director of Training Development
Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd

Just been casting around 10 Downing Street’s petitions web site to see what travel-related petitions are live.

Here are my highlights:

It never goes away - a call to stagger school holidays to ease the supply and demand (and pricing) issue for parents.
Signatories: 29

A call to amend the Package Travel Regulations.
Signatories: 171

QE2 fans are calling for the ship to be saved.
Signatories: 60

Protect Hajj travellers from, and I quote, "exploitation and oppression from UK tour operators".
Signatories: 35

But best of all is this petition against poor travel agent service.I quote once again, "Force travel agents to respond to their customers' requests for holiday confirmation and make this a statutory right and legal obligation."

The bad news: disgruntled consumers are not what we want – there is no excuse for poor service.

The good news: only two have signed up.

Martin Couzins, online editor

And I thought they only sold holidays online. Lastminute.com has teamed up with fashion designers Nargess Gharani and Vanya Strok to produce a limited edition silk dress that fits into a hand sized tailored bag.

Why? Because UK women aged between 18-35 years old miss-out an average of 16 nights out a year (wow, I really don't get out enough) because they do not have the right clothes for the occasion, according to a survey carried out by lastminute.com.

It's not cheap but at £350 but all proceeds are going to charity. I'm trying to get hold of one of the dresses to give away to one lucky travel agent, but in the meantime check out the picture.

Martin Couzins, online editor

A new post from industry contributor Brian Hordon (Silversea Cruises UK)

Current and future change encompasses a plethora of subjects; mergers, consortia development, green issues, market growth, e-marketing and technology.

On top of that there are "new" dimensions such as niche markets, luxury travel, UK tourism, and of course the amazing expansion of cruising.

These are all high profile issues right now, and will continue be so for some time.

For travel agents in particular, change can make it easy to lose sight of the most important business element: the customer.

Change inevitably demands new skills, and these skills represent a real opportunity for creative and aggressive travel agents to recognise and deliver the quality of service that the increasingly demanding customer has come to expect.

If you recognise these opportunities and deliver the service right you will have the opportunity to ensure customer loyalty. Lose sight of the opportunities and you could open the doors even wider to the new booking channels that are already threatening traditional agents.

This week I will have enjoyed 50 unbroken years in the UK tourism and travel industry. In that time I have experienced countless changes; but the agents who recognised change, embraced the "new" and adapted accordingly are in most cases still around, and in many cases thriving.

This industry is a wonderful business to be in, and current change represents a special challenge. Agents who recognise this challenge, adapt their business model accordingly and do not lose sight of the customer could be on their way to a new dimension in travel.

I wish I was 50 years younger!

Brian Hordon
Director of Training Development
Silversea Cruises (UK) Ltd.

Is it really all or nothing for women in the travel industry?

Travel Weekly this week reports that Jane Dyson, MD of field marketing business The Network, has had to make a lot of family sacrifices to get on in travel.

I’ve missed sports days, nativity plays, parents’ evenings and more. You definitely do feel guilty but if you want to be successful you can’t have everything.”

Speaking at an Association of Women Travel Executives’ lunch she went on to suggest that career progression could be limited if working parents spent too much time attending school events.

Success, it seems, comes at a price - but isn't that true of any industry? And for men as well as women?

When it comes to work/family balance, travel actually has some good flexible options for those who want a career and a family. Homeworking is a good example.

Such options may not lead to a position as senior as Dyson's, but that is a question of personal priorities.

If your focus is on revenue and customer satisfaction rather than your position on the ladder, it is surely possible to run a very successful travel business without compromising on childcare.

Martin Couzins, online editor

The first of this week's three Travel Weekly Weddings and Honeymoons roadshows took place at Lord's Cricket Ground last night. We managed to video a few agents talking about their best booking:

It was my first time at a roadshow and was quite an eye-opener.

Not only do the agents know their stuff when it comes to product, they also get very competitive. The quiz was quite something, with agents getting very fired up, hitting their buzzers, waving their arms around and shouting out to get noticed by the quizmaster.

We will have some photos from the event on the website shortly. Look out for coverage in the magazine too.

Thanks to the sponsors: Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office, Cosmos, Rex Resorts, Sandals and Beaches Resorts, Cyprus Tourist Office, Argo, Aphrodite Hills, Beds with Ease, Lemongrass Marketing, Belleair.

And for agents attending tonight's event in Birmingham or Thursday's in Liverpool - have a great time.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Interest rates have risen another quarter percent, adding £16 per month to a £100,000 mortgage repayment.

It’s the fifth rise since last August and some economists warn there could be a further delayed hit to households with fixed-rate mortgages, who won’t feel the pinch until their current mortgage-rate agreement expires.

What do you think the impact will be on the holiday market? Are your customers getting more nervous about spending on their credit cards?

Emily Ashwell, business and community editor

Still very uneasy times for Thomas Cook Group staff, but today we report a few encouraging words about the post-merger recruitment market.

David Speakman, whose Travel Counsellors had made clear its intention to mop up good staff squeezed out by the merger, says the company is already receiving applications from Rochdale.

Meanwhile, industry watchers told Travel Weekly:

• That a wide range of SMEs are 'poised to use this opportunity to recruit talented individuals'
• That the merger would be 'a bonanza for online companies looking for staff.'
• That online companies and call centres could be a better bet than independent agencies

So at this stage online, call centres and homeworking companies are being tipped as the best hunting grounds.

If you disagree, or are affected by the merger and looking for work yourself, share your tips and experiences in the comments or email twblog@rbi.co.uk.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

This post comes from Silversea Cruises UK director of training development Brian Hordon.

The online editor of Travel Weekly recently highlighted some research by Boo.com which found that agents are the source of travel information least trusted by consumers.

Travel review websites were in second position, which raises the issue of travel agent vs internet yet again.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises UK

Well at least we know where the Transport Salaried Staffs Association stands on the Thomas Cook / MyTravel job losses. On 10 May we quoted TSSA senior regional organiser Rick Justham saying that he could see “a lot of benefits” in the merger.

“This could be something that secures the future of high-street travel agencies in the long term. I’m hoping the combined company will pack a bigger punch,” he said.

But yesterday union general secretary Gerry Doherty said:

This will mean less choice in the High Street when it comes to holiday bookings.

We warned when the German owned Thomas Cook announced this merger that it would be the British workforce that would pay the price because of our weaker labour laws. This has now come to pass.

We now have only two big players in the High Street with the recent spate of mergers, and that cannot be good for prices or consumer choice.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Quick update on what Martin posted on the Thomas Cook Group redundancies last night. Here's a graph from Yahoo! Finance showing how the stock price dipped yesterday evening (and is recovering today 12 noon: has plunged again after a brief recovery this morning).

Meanwhile on the Travolution blog Kev echoes Martin's observation that 'heads were always going to roll in order to help make £95m of savings':

Unfortunately mergers always lead to business functions from existing companies being combined. Couple this with the obvious pressure from the internet and the old model was clearly unsustainable.

This is cold comfort to anyone who is affected by the cuts, but as Kev also points out TCG have promise to "redeploy" some agents into other business areas.

And remember that homeworking agencies Future Travel and Travel Counsellors said shortly after the merger was announced that they considered the inevitable redundancies a 'recruitment opportunity'.

Finally here's a link to the full Transport Salaried Staff Association response, which also expresses concern about the effect agency closures will have on price and consumer choice.

Nathan Midgley, web producer

A week to the day since the Thomas Cook Group started trading and it has announced it is to shed up to 2,800 jobs.

Heads were always going to roll in order to help make £95m of savings as labour costs represent 70% of businesses' overheads, but now we have had the scale of the job losses confirmed.

There now follows a period of consultation for employees. Not good for them and not good for the city - Reuters reports that shares in the Thomas Cook Group, which opened at 326p on their debut on the London Stock Market last week, were 2.7 percent lower at 311-1/2p following the announcement.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Americas4u director Andrew Winstanley, a member of the Travel Weekly Cruise Club, sends this account of a visit to the Holland America Line vessel...

Cruise ship visits are great, but nobody who runs a travel business has time to spare. So is it worth taking a whole day out to tour a liner?

After visiting Holland America Lines MS Veendam in Dover I can say categorically that the answer is yes. There really is no substitute for seeing the product first hand.

I and around 130 other agents were met at Dover by the Holland America team, who split us into groups for an escorted tour of the ship.

Whilst MS Veendam is now 11 years old it is still a five star experience. There are exquisite works of art on most decks and it was interesting to compare this smaller 1200-berth ship with some of the superliners I have visited.

Despite its age, the ship isn’t stuck in the past. The new Explorations Café – powered by the New York Times – is an elegant coffee shop with Internet access.

I was also surprised at how good the children’s facilities are in Club Hal and the Loft, and teenagers will be delighted with their own adult-free Oasis on the sports deck.

There are all the other luxuries you would expect, such as the Greenhouse Spa and signature restaurants, but one attraction I had not seen before was the Culinary Arts Centre, where guests can watch world-class chefs in action.

With travellers seeking more and more from their holidays this extra twist could prove a big draw.

So my advice is get out and see what you are selling – it will help you match your clients to the right cruise.

Andrew Winstanley, director, Americas4u

Ed: for more on this theme see 'Training is vital for cruise agents' from last week's Travel Weekly

Shame on us for not spotting this before - MyTravel has posted an extremely funny ad on Youtube.

It's part of the 'Pimp My Travel' competition, in which the public are invited to create their own ads for the brand, part of the Thomas Cook Group since its merger with Thomas Cook.

One minor detail, though: MyTravel's hometown is down as Rochester Rochdale (oops - it was the end of the day...). Not for long...

Nathan Midgley, web producer

Right on cue after the iffy 'stay away from agents' advice published on MSN last week (read reactions by Travel Weekly and on Travel Rants) Classic Collection Holidays managing director Nick Munday emails this piece of virtuoso sarcasm...

My barber recently told me of a fantastic idea he'd had that would completely revolutionise the hairdressing industry: Haircutonline.com.

The benefits to the customer would be immense, he assured me. A new style and cut would be just a click away!

Step 1: Download your choice of style. As a convenience to its customers Haircutonline.com would only make three basic styles available online owing to the difficulty of certain haircuts.

Step 2: Grab your scissors and follow the online instructions. At this point a flashing disclaimer would warn the customer that as Haircutonline.com was acting solely as an agent, rather than a principal, it could not be held responsible for any accidents that might occur during the process.

And the greatest benefit of all? Haircutonline.com cuts out the middleman, saving the average male customer a massive £7.00!

While telling me this my barber gave me a cut that was executed with all the expertise and experience that a professional acquires during years of personal service, and which seemed such good value for money at just £7.00.

I wondered whether he had been sniffing too much setting lotion, or been reading up on the benefits of bed-banks and dynamic packaging. Was it purely a coincidence that I went home and registered the domain name Dontbookyourholidayonline.com?

Nick Munday, managing director, Classic Collection Holidays

Today's advice from MSN Money - don't use a travel agent to buy a holiday. And why? I quote from Sarah Modlock's article:

"Avoid the travel agent altogether and get online to research, compare and book at a time to suit you.

There are also several excellent hotel and holiday review sites which can provide ideas and recommendations and reveal facts and tips about destination that you won't find in a brochure.

You can then contact hotels direct and negotiate on price."

The main thrust of the article is that parents pay more for holidays in school holidays rather than term time. No surprises there then - peak demand because schools are off and (in the summer) the best weather equals higher prices.

That's the way the market works. But let's be clear - it has never been cheaper to buy a holiday and prices are driving travel agencies out of business. Whatever time of the year you choose to holiday you will be able to get an awful lot for your money.

As Darren on Travel Rants rightly points out, Sarah Modlock's is a one-sided article which omits to tell consumers that their direct booked holiday might not be bonded, which could be problematic if the holiday goes belly up and you have children with you.

And what of the expertise a travel agent can provide? Product knowledge, recommendation, add-ons, bonding, competitive prices, peace of mind and a real person to handle the financial transaction.

Clearly, the web has a role to play in researching a holiday, but try visiting a good travel agent. You won't be disappointed.

UPDATE

A travel agent has posted a defence on the forum related to the MSN article. A quick precis:

• Hotels and airlines are putting their prices up, not agents
• Is it worth the risk of it all going wrong with no professional to look after you for the sake of a few quid?
• If small independent agents close, the big four (two) will have a monopoly and put their prices up even more
• Agents do not control taxes. Do you blame the garage for the increase in fuel?

Martin Couzins, online editor

Some new galleries up on flickr today - check out pics from...

• ITT Conference
• ITT golf tournament
• Travel Weekly Roadshows 2007
• Dynamic Packaging Roadshows 2007

Research from Boo.com has shown that Brits trust travel websites and consumer reviews more than they do travel agents.

Here are the grim results from Boo's Travel Trust Index:

1. Family and friends
2. Online travel sites and reviews
3. Brochures
4. Magazines and newspapers
5. Travel agents

No great surprises here - a similar shift is happening in every industry, and Boo, a travel website which publishes consumer reviews, is hardly going to come out and recommend that you get in touch with a travel agent.

But don't agents deserve a lot more confidence? The research flies in the face of predictions from the likes of online players like Steve Endacott at the On Holiday Group and TUI corporate director of strategy Thies Rheinsberg who believe that in the future travel agents are likely to be responsible for 50% of tour operators' sales.

And what about all the success stories Travel Weekly publishes about high performing travel agents? What about the ten agents who recently scooped honours in the Travel Weekly Agent Excellence Awards for the Midlands and the east of England? I could go on.

So what do travel agents make of this apparent lack of trust in their abilities? Yah boo sucks to this piece of research is what I think.

Martin Couzins, online editor

Okay, it's only number two in a very occasional and very fluffy series, but TW Blog does receive the odd missive from agents praising a supplier and I think it's worth sharing them.

So over to Karin Roberts of City Travel Company, North Wales, who has written in about a good experience with Kirker Travel...

Just after my clients had paid their money and left the office Kirker called to say they had underquoted at £170.00 per person x 4, quite a sum. I said I would try to sort it out, but Kirker called me back to say no need to worry, they had sorted it all out for no extra fee.

The travel industry is a dog eat dog business where anyone will undercut you for pennies and not very many companies will go out of their way to help you. Kirker is an exception - well done Kirker you get my support any day!

Kev has posted an interesting write-up of Manny Fontenla-Novoa's appearance at the ITT Conference over on the TW Group's event blog.

Apparently an announcement about the future of MyTravel/Thomas Cook staff is due June 21, but for now Manny looks "distinctly uncomfortable whenever staffing crops up in conversation."

Speaking of which we report today that some industry watchers, including ex-Thomson man Miles Morgan, are predicting that high street job losses will be considerably fewer at TUI/First Choice.

Perhaps not the most encouraging news day for agents at Thomas Cook and MyTravel. At least their wait will be over in two weeks...

Voting could not be closer! Our dream wedding competition, in association with Attraction World, has had a massive response, with almost 1,000 of you texting or emailing us with your favourite finalist. (No idea what we're on about? Watch the videos.)

Thanks to all of you who have voted already and if you haven't, you have until noon tomorrow to decide who wins a wedding in Vegas.

To vote:

• Text Helen to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Helen Blair in the subject line
• Text Lisa to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Lisa Cooper in the subject line
• Text Claire to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Claire Reith in the subject line
• Text Vicky to 60066 or email travel.weekly@rbi.co.uk with Victoria Young in the subject line

I heartily endorse Brian Hordon's comments (see also Travel Weekly letters, 18 May) that agents are missing out by not doing more to sell coach holidays. They are easy to sell, have good rates of commission and attract customers who are loyal and also prefer to book with an agent.

Short breaks and holidays by coach are big business. A recent Mintel report predicted the market would increase by 23 per cent at current prices to be worth an estimated £2.93 billion by 2011 with passenger numbers rising to 8.8 million, fuelled by the demand for more costly overseas holidays.

Coach operator members of the Coach Tourism Council (CTC) would love agents to help meet this demand and sell more coach holidays, By tradition most sell direct to their customers but they appreciate there is a huge untapped market that agents have access to.

All our coach operators recognise the need to adapt and move with the times and there has been multi-million pound investment in new coaches, door-to-door collections, new product and huge improvements in service levels with use of higher quality hotels.

And as well as selling tours operated by national coach companies, all travel agents will have a locally based bonded coach operator offering a wide range of UK and European holidays.

Agents can also sell the environmentally friendly credentials of coach holidays. They are not just safer to travel in than planes, trains and cars but pro rata use less fuel. While every gallon of fuel will take two car passengers about 30 miles, a gallon of coach fuel takes the same two people 200 miles.

So let's see more agents join us in selling coach tourism.

Christopher Wales, chief executive, Coach Tourism Council

The second of our Triton video blogs, from Travolution editor Kevin May...

Travel Weekly was out and about with a camera at the Triton Conference in Portugal - here's the first of three video blogs, presented by reporters Ed Robertson and Kelly Ranson.

I often wonder what goes on in boardrooms of large companies.

Really clever people consulting with other really clever marketing people and advertisers and experts on this and that. All earning a fortune by advising on how best to run a business.

Well I've said it before and I'll say it again: you only have to listen to the people on the shop floor. Those working day to day can (and do) offer better advice but it seems unless the "big hitters" are paying out a fortune they just don't listen.

Take 0870 numbers for instance. We are a small independent agent, one of many (well, not quite so many now). We used Travel 2 & 4 religiously until they introduced 0870 numbers. I said they would lose agents. I went on and on - I even sent them the bills showing how much it was costing us to call them.

My plight fell on deaf ears (I wasn't charging, so naturally I wasn't worth listening to). So, we now do 95% of our business with Gold Medal (local number given to Worldchoice agents). Last year we did about a quarter of a million with them.

Multiply that by just a handful of agents and you can imagine how much business Travel 2 & 4 have lost. Yes, they were agent friendly (very important to me), yes they were very good BUT I could not afford to spend £2-4 on a call to them when I could call Gold Medal at a fraction of the cost.

Finally, they've woken up and come up with a great idea - a FREEPHONE number. But so much business is lost now, they'll find it difficult to get it back. I guess it will drift back slowly.

It's been no surprise to see Gold Medal's adverts in Travel Weekly as a response - still I guess at least they haven't waited until they've lost all their business to do something about it!

Diane Coleman, Tickets Travel

I wonder how many travel agents overlook the many profitable opportunities offered by the vast coach holiday market?

I have to confess that I have not studied "the numbers" for some time (i.e. years!) and am ashamed to say that I had not recognised the amazing volume of travellers who booked a domestic coach holiday last year.

A MINTEL report mentioned in Travel Weekly highlighted the drop in numbers experienced during the last 6 years, and it is only when you stop and ask why that you realise that perhaps the coach holiday industry needs an image review not dissimilar to the cruise industry's.

The Travel Weekly feature used the words "blue rinse" "old people" "youth focused" - all words that until recently were totally associated with the cruise holiday, and just look at the success of cruising today.

The coach holiday really does meet the needs and desires of the travellers of many age groups - meeting a variety of different people, friendship, safety and security, and a variety of different destinations which appeal to holidaymakers who have already travelled extensively and are beginning to enjoy the unique and special benefits that Britain offers year round.

Yet again, more opportunity for the creative and aggressive travel agent to expand customer support, develop new business and of course MAKE MONEY! (I am sure someone will tell me - do customers ask for a deal when buying a domestic coach holiday?)

The world of travel is surrounded with opportunity and domestic coach holidays MUST be seen as yet another market arena to explore.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd.

More awesome stats from the wonderful world of travel & tourism were published this week. Two really caught my imagination.

First, that 40.6% is the predicted increase in what the British will spend on tourism in the next five years. Second, that £27 billion is the amount spent on overseas holidays in 2004.

Just taking a few minutes to step aside, clear my mind, and review what these stats actually mean is quite simply mind boggling! My immediate question is, "Who will handle all this business, and how?"

Everyone says "the computer, the internet etc." But the really professional travel agent who reacts to these stats NOW, with training, possible niche product focus and other special opportunities can well achieve success beyond their wildest dreams.

Is everyone ready for this opportunity? Is anyone ready for this opportunity? I wonder.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd.

We've received an uplifting email from Cheryl, assistant manager at Travelcare in Billingham.

Her client, whose children are currently taking exams, was left in the lurch when their departure time was changed. So Cheryl called operator Balkan Holidays to request that they be moved to an alternative flight.

The response? Yes, no problem. And free of charge to both agent and customer, despite the higher price of the alternative flight. Aside: Now picture a consumer trying to make similar changes to a direct-booked DIY holiday.

I was gobsmacked, usually if flight times change operators do not let customers change free of charge as they state in the booking conditions that they are not guaranteed anyway. And have you ever heard of an operator not charging the extra holiday cost to the customer?

So all we would like to say is well done Balkan! It's nice to know that there are some operators out there still that will do their best to help us agents and their customers.

Hello repeat business. As Diane writes below, service with a smile makes us all happy - if you come across an exceptional instance of it, drop us an email and we'll give it a mention.

The numbers featured in recent editions of Travel Weekly alongside the projected growth in long haul holidays are nothing short of awesome. A 29% increase by 2011 is predicted, a staggering increase but best interpreted by creative travel agents as real opportunity to make BIG money.

No calculator is needed to realise that this is only four years away, and I do wonder just how many travel agents have really recognised this spectacular opportunity to position their agency as a real expert within this exciting and lucrative arena.

Four years....just think about it, because if you don't, someone else will; or will the operators simply take the decision to go direct to the consumer?

Yet again, more opportunity for the creative and aggressive travel agent. I wonder how many will really grasp it.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

Today is a dark day for toursim. Well, in actual fact the University of Central Lancashire is hosting a conference on Dark Tourism, in association with the Dark Tourism Forum and the Tourism Society.

In their words, dark tourism is 'an age-old phenomenon highlighting the act of visiting sites, exhibitions or areas with a sinister, morbid or tragic history'.

Topics covered include 'Tragedy and Heritage: The Case of Cambodia' and 'Business, Battlefields and Tourism - A Practitioner's Perspective'.

Death, destruction, war - they all mark history and shape lives so it is no surprise that punters want to visit such sites. And where there is consumer demand, we as an industry must sell. But is 'dark tourism' the best name? All sounds a bit sinister to me.

And how do dark tourism specialists sell their product? Hmm. Be delighted to hear from anyone who specialises in trips to war scenes. Or should I say, can anyone from 'the dark side' shed some light on how this all works?

Martin Couzins, acting editor

Introducing a new industry blogger, Karen Bryan...

I am an independent travel consultant and writer, promoting lesser-known destinations in Europe. I started my business in 2002 and have developed the NAB (Niche, Articles, Blog) system for my business, enabling me to NAB my share of the travel market.

As a small business I've had to find a niche for myself. I can't compete with the big boys on destinations such as Paris, Rome and Prague - I'd probably be on page 30 on a Google search. So I concentrate on lesser-known destinations. I write articles and destination guides for my site and then have them published on as many other relevant sites as possible - the first one I wrote, for Lake Iseo in northern Italy, is now the top search result on Google.

I started a blog in October 2006 after receiving an email for a student writing her dissertation about travel business blogs. I didn't know much about commercial blogs but I did a bit of research and thought I'd start one myself.

The blog has delivered an increase in Google page rank and a substansial increase in site visitors and bookings, without me having to spend any money on advertising. However it is pretty time consuming researching and writing posts. I also spend time reading and commenting at other related blogs.

Karen Bryan, Europe a la Carte

In today's Independent, Jeremy Warner argues that the merger is deeply unfair and probably won't get past the competition authorites.

In the Telegraph, the headline to Harry Wallop's piece says it all: "How First Choice became No Choice."

The line here is that the motive behind the merger could well be to be torpedo the Thomas Cook/MyTravel merger. Worth a look for this line from Paul Evans, the chief executive of LowCostTravel Group.com, "Is this about returns on investment or returns on ego?"

And how about this from James Harding at The Times? How long did he work on this Greek intro?

"Nothing has more strength than dire necessity." What held true for the great Greek playwright Euripides also holds true for that great purveyor of holidays to Greece, First Choice.

Harding's analysis is more positive, arguing the merger is a necessary one for both companies.

Martin Couzins, acting editor

The Guardian speaks to Nigel Parson of Evolution Securities, who reckons the European Commission will green-light the merger, and that it "would transform First Choice from lame duck to European powerhouse"

Chris Photi of White Hart Associates, writing for Travel Weekly, says that prices are likely to rise but is positive about the long-term prospects for the UK industry, which "has survived on too small margins for too long". He also predicts the merger will boost confidence in the City, encouraging investors to put money into smaller travel companies.

At the Travolution Blog Kevin points out that there are a number of large US travel providers which would benefit from snapping up a traditional European company. "While we are not suggesting," he says, "that the recent deals have been created simply because of a need to protect themselves against a US invasion - it is worth bearing in mind."

News that Thomson and First choice are merging maybe not be the greatest surprise considering 2007 was mooted as the year of consolidation. But so quickly on the heels of the MyTravel/Thomas Cook deal?

Lots of questions, but not a lot of answers at this stage. What will the Competition Commission have to say? Will these mergers be allowed? These two companies will wield a lot of control and prices are bound to increase as a result. How many shops will remain? What will they be called? How many jobs will be lost? These are unsettled times for those working in the shops of the big four (or should they now be called the big two).

I can't help feeling these mergers are the result of the old-guard of the big, traditional travel companies getting together to look after themselves. What if an online travel agent had made a play for First Choice?

Interesting and exciting times. One thing is for sure, the travel market will look very different at the end of the year compared to the beginning.

Martin Couzins, acting editor

Well I never. First Choice and TUI have announced plans to merge this morning (sound familiar?) so looks like a busy day for the Travel Weekly news desk.

The merger, though obviously contingent on approval from shareholders and anti-trust authorities, is expected to go through in the third quarter of this year. So to anyone who thought First Choice was still smarting from Thomas Cook / MyTravel, that has quite emphatically told you. Click here to change your response to the recent Dermot Blastland caption competition...

Here's a shocking statistic for you. Conservative estimates suggest that fraud costs the travel industry £6 million a year.

In last week's poll we asked whose responsibility it is to crack down on fraud. 34% of you said the police; 27% ABTA; 20% the Government; 18% travel firm management; and 1% advertisers.

As our lead feature shows, ABTA has been working harder than many realise to fight fraud, but the reality is that we all have a responsiblity.

This week we're joining forces with an industry-wide anti-fraud group to launch Stamp Out Fraud, a campaign to raise awareness of the problem.

We'll be providing news, features and advice that help you spot and deal with fraud. You can find links to all our resources on the campaign homepage: Travelweekly.co.uk/fraud.

I used to do some work for a marketing concern that regularly tapped journos from big lifestyle monthlies for insights. One of their favourite phrases was that old chestnut the 'experience economy'.

Here's how they interpreted it: 1) consumers can no longer assert a unique identity through material goods, since those are now standardised and/or available to anyone, anywhere; 2) as a result, consumers now place more value on unique experiences.

Thus, goes the argument, the demand for flexibility and customisation that is sweeping almost every consumer sector, from fashion to (don't we know it) publishing.

How these changes have manifested themselves in the travel market is no secret, but some figures we reported this week seem to make it explicit. B2B data firm Market and Business Development predicts that overseas holiday spend will rise to £27.3bn by 2011, but that at the same time the market share enjoyed by the traditional overseas package will drop to 39%.

That's more holidays taken, and a greater proportion of those holidays tailored for the holidaymaker, whether independently online or through an agent creating dynamic packages. Demand for unique experiences? You're looking at it. And it's getting bigger, which must mean it's coming towards you.

So is travel becoming the defining product category of an 'experience economy'? And what does that mean for how holidays are marketed and sold?

Nathan Midgley, Travelweekly.co.uk

We can't help thinking that this Little Britain sketch is a glimpse of what could happen should ABTA, the FSA and the Treasury fail to reach an agreement on the regulation of travel insurance...

Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day, which is organised by the Trades Union Congress.

According to the TUC, more than five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £23 billion of free work every year.

So, no excuses today. Try and take a lunch break, a coffee break and a tea break and leave on time. And show us how you get on. Send us pictures of you observing Work Your Proper Hours Day - especially if you're spending your break immersed in a copy of the Weekly - and we'll put them on our Flickr galleries.

And if you do work well beyond your contracted hours, the TUC has provided an overtime calculator so you can find out exactly how much your overtime is worth.

Update: Never let it be said that the Weekly is all talk. Here's the team asserting its right to a tea break on Work Your Proper Hours day...

Martin Couzins, acting editor

You are directly threatening the loss of your most valuable customers by imposing costs already included in the price of our tickets and hampering technology that is critical to the efficient functioning of our modern corporate travel programmes.

We urge you to move promptly to conclude your GDS negotiations with your best customers’ concerns top of mind.

...or so says a group of leading corporate travel types, upset at British Airways over its widely rumoured tough negotiating stance with the GDSs.

Full story here, courtesy of Travolution.

Brian Horden, one of our industry bloggers, has returned from a holiday to Australia. He writes:

A wonderful poster on the door of Jetset Travel in Ballina, New South Wales:

"Without a Travel Agent, you're on your own"

A powerful message or not? What a debate this could create...

We've been trawling the web for some more reaction to today's news. At the Times Ginny McGrath reckons consumers will barely notice the difference...

Such a merger back in the mid-1990s might have produced an increase in package holiday prices, owing to reduced competition. Now it is more about survival of the traditional operators.

...while in the same paper's business section Steve Hawkes reckons the merger will silence doubts about MyTravel boss Peter McHugh.

The Guardian has a brief comment from Evolution Securities' Nigel Parson to the effect that KarstadtQuelle's recently announced purchase of the 50% of Thomas Cook still owned by Lufthansa paved the way for today's announcement.

Forbes has a story that suggests there will be no Thomas Cook job losses in Germany.

If you've been following the story on Travel Weekly you'll also have seen that First Choice has, naturally, confirmed that it is terminating talks about the sale of its mainstream holiday division.

And finally - if you missed the live feed of KarstadtQuelle's press conference this morning, it's now available on demand. Load the page and hit the 'Speeches' link.

Our reporters have put together some analysis of the Thomas Cook / MyTravel merger over at Travelweekly.co.uk. These are some of the key points:

• The merged company will be known as Thomas Cook Group
• It will have 1,100 high street travel agencies in the UK
• The merger brings together 50 brands, 97 aircraft and around 33,000 staff
• Large scale job cuts are expected
• The deal is shares-only, leaving funds available for further investment or acquisitions
• First Choice shares have dropped by 20%, with MyTravel’s jumping by 30%

On the Travolution blog Kevin has some thoughts on how the Big Three will operate:

First Choice is increasingly moving into the long haul market; Thomson will be pushing its new strategy of uber-dynamic packaging, using a combination of its own aircraft, accommodation and third parties suppliers.

As for the Thomas Cook Group, expect the company to not drop its focus on its pre-packaged holidays and make a major push on its short-haul business.

The Association of British Travel Agents has long been known by its acronymn ABTA, but this is soon to become official according to reports of changes apparently being proposed by the association’s board.

If the changes are given the go-ahead the association will become known simply as Abta, and, just as BAA lost any reference to airports when it ditched the longhand version of its name, will cease to refer directly to travel agents.

But this is just one of many changes the association is proposing, the most fundamental of which will see agent representation at board level significantly reduced as ABTA strives to transform itself into the association that represents the entire travel industry.

Other changes include opening up membership to airlines, ferry operators and accommodation-only suppliers.

Obviously, we're interested to hear what you think of all this:

• By trying to widen its remit does ABTA risk losing its identity, particularly the strong consumer recognition that many feel is its most valuable asset?
• Is it time for independent agents to find or create a representative body that will concentrate on their issues?
• Is ABTA risking alienating independent agents and undermining their reasons for paying subscription fees and bonding costs?

Leave a comment on this post, or email us if you'd like your comments to appear on next week's letters page.

Lee Hayhurst, acting news editor

If you've been following the negotiations between British Airways and the GDSs - which could, as we reported yesterday, leave agents lumbered with a £4 charge per sector - head over to the Travolution blog, where Kevin has been chatting to an insider. Apparently walking away isn't on the airline's agenda at all...

Instead, our mole suggests, BA is demanding “unfeasibly large cuts” in their GDS booking fees and, if they don’t get these, threatening simply to add the full GDS booking fee to any bookings made through this channel – which would make GDSs the most expensive way to book BA. And – in fairly short order, you can bet – any other airline.

"Either way," Travo's source eloquently concludes, "it sucks for everyone except BA."

Brian Horden, one of our industry bloggers, wades in to a long-running debate...

That question has appeared yet again..."why are women not at the top with more travel companies?"

My views on this subject go back in history, and then jump right into the year 2006.

My first three bosses in the travel industry were all female, and I can only repeat what I have said on many other occasions: my gratitude to these people for the knowledge, wisdom and experience which they shared has been reflected in the many successes that I have enjoyed in my travel career.

I also wonder how many women actually want some of the top jobs in our colourful industry?

So often, behind the scenes of some of the more successful companies is the strategic thinking of the female mind....the "engineer" behind the success of new thoughts, new ideas, and new systems.

And, on a slightly different "tack", customers enjoy talking to women, especially professional, knowledgeable and enthusiastic women, and moving these people "upstairs" within the company so often removes the best people for face-to-face contact (how often do you see "super salespeople" retail managers working on the Foreign Exchange desk!).

Some contentious views, I am sure; and just to support some of my many thoughts on this subject, just look at the cruise business with Carol Marlow as president of Cunard, Trudy Redfern as vice president of Silversea, Lynn Narraway, director of Carnival Cruise. Or look at the women in First Choice…air and retail, and all successful

Do women want the top job, and all the "baggage" that goes with it, or would they rather be in the position of quietly driving the company forward from behind the scenes? I am sure there will be lots of thoughts on this.

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

You know I don't mind paying full price for a holiday and I never EXPECT to get a concession especially in peak season (although Cosmos give agents 20% even in August!).

But I do hate to think that a member of the public has got a holiday cheaper than me.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much but as an agent you'll come back and, all being well of course, promote that particular travel company for free!

A small concession or reduction goes a long way. I remember booking my honeymoon nearly 20 years ago with Paris Travel Service on the Orient Express - they gave me 25% and I never forgot it. They were always my first choice for Paris.

So all you tour operators out there: a little goes a long way and lasts a long time!!!!

I recently took my kids to Lapland. The tour operator who we will call AcrossSnow didn't give us a concession. Okay, I thought, its peak season, not much availability (and no I couldn't go with Cosmos as they didn't have the dates I wanted But they WOULD have given a concession!).

But it really bugged me to hear that of most of the group, we appeared to have paid the most.

Meanwhile, back in September I was the lucky winner of two tickets to Australia with a well known consolidator and a well known middle eastern airline.

I held off telling the kids – as I thought I'd wait to hear what the restrictions were. I knew I wouldn't be able to travel peak season, Dec, Easter etc but it was via Dubai and going to Oz, so surely August would be fine?

Anyway, they were very excited when I told them. I had to go back to the shop and open up so they could get some brochures and begin planning their dream trip.

All running smoothly until the consolidator told us the airline don't allow any school holiday travel. The kids’ dreams were shattered, so I if I could pay a supplement.

Three months later (and I now only have nine months to use them) and the consolidator is STILL waiting for a reply from the airline!!!!

In the meantime two staff here booked their holidays and I no longer have more than two weeks to go anywhere!!

So now I've asked if I can give them to someone else. I wonder how long this response will take…

So, anyone out there fancy a trip to Oz? Don't hold your breath, though, as if it takes them another three months to let me know there'll be barely anytime to use them as it'll be Easter, then Half Term, then the private school hols, and then its Scotland school hols, then its August and UK hols – and then they expire!!

It's great being a travel agent!!!

Diane Coleman, Tickets Travel

If you’re feeling depressed today, worry not, you’re in good company.

January 22 is the most depressing day of the year, according to one headline-grabbing psychologist who, among other things cites fading memories of holidays as one reason for this being a particularly gloomy start to the working week.

If you’re a travel agent or tour operator, however, there should be a little spring in your step and a glint in your eye that says, today’s the day to sell holidays, to give people something to look forward to.

And with a cold snap with us and no World Cup this year to ride a coach and horses through all your plans to generate forward bookings, operators are heralding the return of the busy early year booking period.

I’m not usually one to take much notice of the kind of psycho babble that prompted this blog but maybe there is something in it. A relative of mine was saying just last night how all she could think about at the moment was where she was going to go on holiday this year.

So while everyone else is moping around, suffering from the effects of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), it is the travel trade’s job to find the motivation, the positive outlook on life to sell them their dream holiday.

Good luck, and hopefully by the time the year’s happiest day come along (June 23) you’ll have sold enough holidays to enjoy yourselves.

Lee Hayhurst, acting news editor [note new title for Lee - Ed]

A spy has sent us a picture of Miles Morgan, late of the Thomson parish and now of self-employed fame, cavorting around at the Globes on Tuesday night.

The burning question is: What's in the bag, Miles?

Last night, my colleague Jo Gardner and I were given the task of playing Trinny and Susannah.

We were on a mission to find the best dressed people at the Globes - quite a hard task with almost 1,500 people walking through the doors of the Grosvenor House desperate to grab a glass of champagne.

Deciding on the critique was pretty tough – did we go for some smart and elegant or some really eye caching numbers?

Well, from men in kilts through to ladies in their designer glad rags we did pick out a few and both the magazine and the web will name those that stood out for us. You can see them in our best dressed gallery at flickr.com.

Who stood out for you?

Kelly Ranson, reporter

It’s always a sign of a good night when you see respectable members of the travel trade sprawled on the floor at the end of the night.

One young man was seen tripping and ultimately falling as he attempted one of the Grosvenor House Hotel’s many staircases, a young lady lay flat out on the stairs to the exit, while one City analyst could not help but fall flat on his face in the ballroom – naming no names Andrew…

Of course it was another story for a certain member of the Travel Weekly team, but I couldn’t possibly comment in public.

Of course if Ed Robertson wants to give a full account of his journey home, that’s up to him.

Juliet Dennis, news editor

Over on table 54 former-ABTA head of corporate affairs Keith Betton was actually seen to put his hand in his pocket and buy a packet of cigarettes instead of doing his usual trick of blagging off anyone he can find with a pack.

The Siren PR table was handily situated close to its client’s two Royal Caribbean International tables, the scene of some of the night’s most vocal celebrations when it scooped the best four-star cruiseline award ahead of rival and perennial winner P&O Cruises.

Following much hearty backslapping, hugging and punching of the air with Royal Caribbean’s Robin Shaw, Michael English and Jo Rzymowska, who could barely contain her delight as she collected the award, at the centre of the celebrations.

Can this be the same Rzymowska who told a Travel Weekly journalist last year after P&O Cruises won their category that she didn’t care much for winning a Globe and much preferred to win consumer awards? Anyway, there’s nothing like winning!

Lee Hayhurst, deputy news editor

Staging the awards in-the-round was a master stroke – a throwback to the Globe of Shakespeare’s day perhaps. Whatever, it worked marvellously.

So many awards ceremonies are diminished for all those sat on the margins or far from the stage and reduced to watching on a TV screen. Aside from anything else, being more inclusive cut down the background chatter.

The standing ovation for TW boss Trevor Harding was genuinely warm and made a fitting end. So it was shame to bring on the showgirls – too much of a throwback to a former age in an industry in which more than half the workforce are women.

Surely it’s time more of them made it to the stage as award winners?

Ian Taylor, reporter

There’s black tie and there’s black tie. This year’s Travel Weekly Globes provided some twists on the familiar awards attire.

Leading the way was Travel Weekly’s very own Trevor Harding, who managed to pimp up his dinner suit with a three-quarter length ivory silk jacket. And then there was David Speakman’s pin stripe dinner suit. Are the boys the new girls, suits the new dresses?

It was pointed out to me last night that Onholidaygroup’s Steve Endacott seems only ever to be referred to as Endacott. Or is there some other commonly used moniker for the dynamic packaging dynamo?

Martin Couzins, acting editor [and huge fan of ivory silk jackets, we presume – Ed]

Diane Coleman of Tickets Travel, one of our industry bloggers, writes:

Well I don't know about you but December isn't exactly time for most agents and operators to be rushed off their feet is it?

You would imagine most operators would be happy to quote on good bookings (or any bookings for that matter!) – but apparently not!

As an independent agent we like to put our business with specialist operators where we can and hope to receive as good a service as we'd like to think we give our clients – one where we can get through to on the phone, one that values the business and comes back to us when promised etc etc.

Imagine my surprise when I received quite the opposite from two very well respected companies that shall remain nameless.

No. 1 was for a quote for two families to SFO [San Francisco] and Las Vegas – approx £10,000. One North America specialist, which is usually on the button, didn't reply to our email, so we phoned them; a quote was emailed, we were told.

We hadn't received it and we were asked to check. We are a small agency with two computers and not many more staff, we were sure we hadn't, but we checked.

We hadn't received it, so we were told it would be faxed!

It didn't arrive. We chased again. Your fax isn't working, we were told – but we'd just received another fax and we'd just sent one!

We asked why it couldn't be emailed again. Apparently the lady that had completed the quote had a clear out and mistakenly erased it! It did come eventually with another ramble about how it had been sent the week before and how we ought to get our fax fixed, etc [makes you wonder if they need the business!!].

No.2 was for a quote to Chile. I'm afraid to say that 20 years in the business still hasn't given me much experience of South America. The clients may as well have been talking to me in Spanish when they gave me the details!

So I approached a company I'd like to do more business with – a specialist with a director with a very apt name for this season (it wasn't him I spoke to).

I'll be honest with you, he said: “You won’t get anything for Jan or Feb – its peak season.” I'll try for November – but the clients will go any time Jan or Feb, they don't want November.

“You need to book nine months in advance at least for Chile – it'll come back full,” he said.

I was getting nowhere. In the end, I said: “So you don't want to try and see then?"

No, he said, “I'm just being honest”. Shame really as Travel 2 managed to come up with something for £7,300 – admittedly it was difficult to get the seats but we got there in the end.

I don't know about you but I cant afford to turn away business for that sort of money and even if I could I wouldn't – I want to keep my reputation as I've spent a long time building it!

Oh and by the way: Feliz navidad.

I'm beginning to get my head round the Spanish after all!

Diane Coleman, Tickets Travel

Julia Feuell from New Frontiers writes:

Today I was interviewed, along with ex-Travel 2 operations director, Kelly Golds, by the BBC regarding the industry job losses expected to be announced soon.

The interview will be televised on BBC One, including Breakfast TV, as well as News 24 and World.

Nigel Cassidy asked me questions about why I thought Thomson may be making the cuts and whether travel industry jobs may be in decline. I felt the weight of the travel industry in answering these questions, but tried to answer as honestly as possible.

The honest answer is I don’t know why Thomson is making the redundancies.

Here is a little warning to those operators out there attempting to boost the bottom line through one particular method.

At the Travel Trust Association’s annual conference yesterday at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London, I sat with a group of independent travel agents for lunch.

We discussed the usual issues affecting their particular corner of the industry: agent commissions, commoditisation of products, a perceived need that they need to specialise in order to survive, etc.

But imagine my surprise as the conversation became very heated, not because of the mess that is bonding or their almost universal dislike of ABTA, but how some operators have chosen to switch their contact number to that of the 0870 variety.

It appears they feel some companies are “creaming it”, in the words of one agent, because the per-minute rate is now substantially higher than previously and the waiting time for account handlers to come on the line has also suddenly increased.

The solution, according to one of the other agents around the table, is simple: “I don’t use the operator anymore.”

Ouch…

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Brian Hordon, from Silversea Cruises and one of our regular industry bloggers, writes:

WTM is a remarkable GLOBAL event, and although I know that there are often negative comments within the UK with regard to the cost (travel, hotel, etc), this expense does not seem to deter many agents who travel from all corners of the world on a "one stop" shopping and learning exersise.

I remember a well know travel personality who left the tour operating world and moved into retail; he would attend the last day at WTM with his 4 x 4 and trailer, "helping" our global tourism partners by taking unused quantities of destination material for use in his high street agency.

Actual specifc destination material is often in short supply within the retail arena, and access to these country, resort, hotel brochures can be of real benefit, and can be distributed by agents AFTER the customer has paid the deposit and the booking is confirmed! No free distribution outlet here!

This entire scenario ia actually a communication feature which can be "loaded" into your newsletter, e-mail blast or blog, targeted at YOUR special customer data base.

I would love to hear what other creative activities have been developed by other agents within the trade show arena.

More World Travel Market. Wherever you looked, whatever you read, from the various platforms hosted by the travel and technology experts within our business, the words appeared with remarkable frequency: dynamic packaging, cruising, specialist holidays, long-haul holidays.

This MUST be sweet music to the creative travel agent who has taken a lot of "hit's" during recent years. Is the tide turning I ask?

Brian Hordon, director of training development, Silversea Cruises

Gosh, we are media luvvies here this week. Just a day after reporter Paul Nelson appeared on ITV Wales, Travel Weekly found itself gracing the pages of the Metro newspaper this morning.

A story we featured in last week's edition, about a supposed sickness bug that knocked ABTA delegates off their feet at the recent convention in Marbella, was picked up by Metro and turned into a nice page lead.

"Trade journal Travel Weekly" was quoted at the bottom of the article.

"The ABTA convention is establishing itself for tummy upsets. With next year's event lined up for Tenerife, can we suggest steering clear of the seafood!"

What a funny bunch we are - ahem.

However, we suspect we got a fair share of the paper's female readers, having ex-tennis star/sex-symbol Bjorn Borg - in a shocking jumper, it must be said - pictured alongside [no relation to the story!].

Here I am being interviewed for ITV Wales current affairs programme Wales This Week for a feature which includes the failure of ABTA travel agency Mossley Travel.

The show is examining the business dealings of one of Mossley Travel’s former owners and includes details of the agency finances and 2003 failure.

I was asked to appear to clarify the role ABTA plays when one of its agency members ceases trading.

The show aired last night [Monday 11th December] at 8pm.

Paul Nelson, reporter

The travel industry needs to work harder at lobbying, according to a story that we recently carried on travelweekly.co.uk.

The Travel Weekly Blog can't help with that (at least not right now...) but here's a natty way of keeping up with travel-related speeches and debates in the Houses of Parliament.

Head to Theyworkforyou.com, a site which is designed to keep us in touch with what our MPs are up to. A noble enough goal in itself, but the site also features - here's the good bit - a keyword-driven email alert service.

That means you can sign up, register for keywords like 'travel' or 'tourism', and read what the Commons and the Lords are saying about the industry from the comfort of your inbox. It's free, and all you need to disclose is your email address.

We're going to sign up here and see how useful the service is, so look out for updates. If you try it too we'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Nathan Midgley, travelweekly.co.uk

Introducing another of our industry bloggers, Diane Coleman of Tickets Travel

I've not long returned from an educational in Spain. Well, I think it was Spain – all I saw was inside of hotel rooms. All very nice but I could have been anywhere in the world!

Anyway, the scene was set – the bar, where else – for some funny story swapping...

At work one sunny Saturday. It’s a village, so these afternoons are spent catching up on paperwork, serving the odd person (these are not odd people as such where I'm from, I mean odd as in one or two).

I’m watching people in their wedding attire, attending weddings being held in the beautiful churches at each end of the High Street.

In walk two men in top hat and tails. They're lost, I thought. Surely not - drunk perhaps?.

"I want to book a honeymoon" says one of the men. Ok, I thought, its candid camera (or a modern version), I'll play along.

“When for?" I ask. "Tomorrow or Monday" comes the reply.

It’s no joke – the groom stood before me, wanting to arrange the honeymoon, he explained.

They'd just left the reception to book it and could I call back on the best man's mobile (I wasn't allowed to call the groom!).

I was very unsure, but apparently they had a great time in Madrid. I never did get to ask if the bride thought it was booked all along. Indeed, I wonder if they are still married…

Diane Coleman, Tickets Travel

There was a time when consumers, especially around Christmas and the New Year, couldn’t escape from the ads on television extolling the virtues of a trip to the local travel agent.

A quick trawl of the wonderful v