Abta they are stupid sometimes

With all the doom and gloom and travel agents closing, Abta rather stupidly in my opinion has decided not to hold a UK event so that hard up agents could attend.

Instead they have decided to hold their silly conference in Barcelona, which will be rather poorly attended, adding more travel expense…

The news follows the recent announcement that the 2009 Travel Convention will be held in Barcelona.

At this year’s convention in Gran Canaria, chief executive Mark Tanzer outlined plans for an additional series of two or three UK events to ensure agents who could not afford to go to the main convention did not miss out.

These would have covered the same content as the main event.

But head of development Andy Cooper confirmed the association had debated the issue and thought 2009 was not the right year to try out a new format, while sponsorship of such events was unlikely in the current economic downturn.

He said: “It’s unlikely we will do anything in the current year looking at the practicalities of getting funding to make it work and the logistics. The cost of hotel rooms in the UK is so expensive that doing an overseas conference is not more expensive than doing it here.”

Meanwhile, ABTA is undergoing a strategic review of what the association stands for and its direction as an organisation.

It has already conducted focus groups, interviews with staff and the media. The results of the research are to be put to the board in mid-January.

Cooper added: “We will draw up proposals to look at the whole programme of ABTA’s future.”

Travel trust association poor mans ABTA

The Travel Trust Association, which basically is the poor mans ABTA and provides travel agency services to companies and individuals who cannot afford or would not pass the ABTA regulations.

Where ABTA for eg is very upfront on reporting travel agency failures, the travel trust association does not..

Having just paid over 4 million for worldchoice, is now in a situations where it has to raise its awareness as the public have no idea who they are..

The TTA to Is to advertise on the radio in a bid to increase its awareness among consumers.

The radio advert, which will be aired on Heart FM from January, will feature the voice of Janet Raven .

The advert urges consumers to book their holiday with a TTA member, so the Travel trust can earn a commission from members selling holidays, for peace of mind and provides a web link to a directory of members.

TTA managing director said: “This won’t create hundreds of leads – it’s about awareness. We are trying to gain some consumer understanding of who we are.

If this is successful, we will develop it further perhaps to TV advertising.”

UK holidays and short breaks getting cheaper

Ok first things first, UK holidays have always been in the firing line, for being more expensive than a holiday to Spain.

However a huge drop in the number of UK domestic holidays taken in the summer peak month of August has finally got through to greedy hotelier and holiday parcs and prices are now dropping… See UK holidays and short breaks

Tourism Alliance chairman Bob Cotton said that the figures showed that UK holiday prices had been kept unrealistically high and prices are now falling, making UK holidays and breaks more attractive.

Latest figures from Visit-Britain show that the number of overnight trips fell by 11% – equivalent to 1.7 million fewer trips – over August 2007. Spending was down by nine per cent.

“Domestic tourism is on the slide. Unless decisive action is taken to support it a considerable number of tourism-related jobs will be at risk,” he said.

Cotton added that the Spanish government had just announced a financial package of assistance to its tourism industry worth €400 million.

“Spain recognises the value of its tourism industry which is hardly the case with the UK government,” he said.

“Implementing these two measures would go a long way towards protecting the UK tourism industry. Without them, tourism revenue will fall and job losses will multiply.”

The Tourism Alliance called for two key measures of support:

*Review existing and proposed legislation to see where costs to tourism businesses can be reduced.

Proposed regulations on employment, food labelling, service charges/tipping, and licensing will lead to additional costs that businesses can ill afford.

The increase in Air Passenger Duty, announced in the pre-Budget Report, will deter people from visiting the UK just at the time they are needed to boost tourism.

December abta ceased trading

Latest travel industry news for December starts with the demise of 2 more ABTA travel agencies. In Chester and Macclesfield.

ABTA no: D6018/V8618
ATOL no: 3182
Company name: Landround Travel Ltd
Trading names: Xpert Travel, Buy & Fly, Diners Club Travel Service, Discover Promotion & Villa Vacations
Address: The Quadrant, Chester West, Sealand Road, Chester, CH1 4QR
Branches: -
ABTA claims ref: AB14839
We have been advised that the above named company is unable to meet its liabilities and ceased trading w.e.f. 22/11/08.

Any retail and non-licensable claims arising from the failure of Landround Ltd will be handled by CEGA, ABTA’s claims handling partner. The company also had licensable turnover and any ATOL claims will be handled by the CAA.

PLEASE NOTE: This business has no connection to any other Member with a similar name.

The ABTA claims period will close on 22/05/09. All claims and supporting documentation must be received prior to this date.

Contact: The ABTA Claims enquiries office can be contacted on tel 01243 621 500 or email abtaclaims@cegagroup.com
Posted: 3 December 2008
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ABTA no: 56913
ATOL no: -
Business name: Palmerston Travel Trading names: -
Address: 15 High Street, Bollington, Macclesfield, SK10 5PH
Branches: -
ABTA claims ref: AB7618
We have been advised that the above named business has ceased trading.

Any retail claims arising from the failure of Palmerston Travel will be handled by CEGA, ABTA’s claims handling partner.

PLEASE NOTE: This business has no connection to any other Member with a similar name.

The ABTA claims period will close on 02/06/09. All claims and supporting documentation must be received prior to this date.

Contact: The ABTA Claims enquiries office can be contacted on tel 01243 621 500 or email abtaclaims@cegagroup.com
Posted: 02 December 2008