Five improvements for the UK travel industry in 2010
By Darren Cronian on Monday, January 4th, 2010

I have mentioned some of these improvements in separate posts but I wanted to combine them into one post. These are five changes that I think would make life easier for consumers. Changing holiday financial protection is a massive undertaking but it’s essential.

Five improvements for the UK travel industry in 2010

Here are my five improvements for travel.

Holiday financial protection

Either the government or the CAA needs to run a series of campaigns to educate consumers on how to protect themselves financially when booking a holiday. There’s so much confusion, you can see that if you read any of the comments left when a company goes into administration.

I realise that the majority of consumers focus on price but they should be informed if the holiday is not financially protected. This should be highlighted in any quotes, or invoices and options given so that the consumers can act accordingly.

Improved booking terms and conditions

I realise that companies need the legal spiel in their booking terms and conditions but I would like to see companies create a more user friendly version. This version would include useful information like the cancellation policy, holiday protection, complaints procedure etc.

Hopefully, this way more consumers will take the time to read this information. As a travel consumer blogger I will be hitting home the importance of reading the booking terms and conditions prior to booking a holiday because a lot of the issues I receive emails on could be avoided.

Banning third-party ESTA and EHIC websites

Plain and simple these sites cause confusion and why should consumers be out of pocket when both the ESTA application and NHS European Health Insurance Card are both free. I would like to see the government and NHS asking Google to remove such sites from the sponsors ads and search results.

Cut out the holiday selling tricks

One particular company is consistently mentioned in my inbox for inaccurate, selling tricks. Enticing the consumer on with super low prices, the consumer books online and then the next morning they are informed that the special offer no longer exists.

The other trick is again trapping the consumer on a cheap holiday, to find when it comes to booking, the price has increased considerably and no price breakdown. Most consumers have a budget and it’s frustrating when the initial search price is different to the final price.

Travel agents need to be more sociable

I would like to see travel agencies becoming more sociable. I don’t know about you but when I visit a travel agent I often feel rushed. I don’t feel like I can sit down with them and spend thirty minutes looking at my options because they have other customers to deal with.

Would it be a good idea to see travel agencies partner with coffee shops, with Wifi so that you could sit down and relax while searching on their intranet site, browsing through deals, flicking through holiday brochures; make it more sociable so holidays can be planned as a group.

Your thoughts and opinions

So what do you think about my improvements, please add your thoughts below.


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12 responses to “Five improvements for the UK travel industry in 2010”

Jennifer | 4 January, 2010 at 12:34 am

This is a smart list, Darren. Maybe things are a bit different for travel agents in the UK than here in the States; the agents I’ve worked with have been among the most friendly and helpful people in the travel/tourism industry I’ve met.

“Cut out the holiday selling tricks” is major! Couldn’t agree more. Nothing turns people off from repeat travel as much as bad surprises regarding these techniques.

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Darren Cronian | 4 January, 2010 at 12:43 am

@ Jennifer

Hi, thanks for commenting. Yes, things are a little different here in that I think travel agencies still feature in our high street and are much more widely used than I think in the US. I have only had two experiences of dealing with unhelpful travel agents, but I think its a pressurised selling situation when you walk into a shop, and I feel rushed. Which is probably why I do a lot of the research online.

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Caitlin | 4 January, 2010 at 5:39 am

I love the idea of making the travel agent experience more sociable. I’d also like more suggestions. My experience with travel agents is they want me to know what I want first and then they can book it. But if I knew what I wanted, then I could book it myself. I think the future for travel agents lies in being specialised in particular places. That would be the big drawcard for me to use a travel agent rather than go direct.

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Nick | 4 January, 2010 at 10:35 am

Darren

Could not agree more about cutting the holiday tricks, they drive us nuts to.

As to the 30 minute comment in travel agents, again this is a chain thing. Most Independents will spend more time. As to coffee shop idea I think this is great, and something we looked into many times. For more information on this follow this link (you notice there all Independents) http://bit.ly/6fa05F

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Maya Northen | 4 January, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Hi Darren,

It’s interesting to see a UK perspective on this and how the systems differ (or don’t) in the US and UK. I 100% back the travel planners being more sociable change. As a planner myself, one of my key objectives is to work personally, in detail with every client. For this reason, I choose to work with fewer clients and focus on a specific type of travel (independent travel) so that I can take as much time as the client requires. In fact, since I work out of a coworking facility and not an actual office, I meet my clients at cafes and coffee shops so although I’m not partnered, the coffee shops should be giving me something for bringing in so many people! :-) (j/k though it would be great! I agree about the holiday tricks as well. I generally toss those emails unless something really seems sincere, and when a client is interested in a destination, I contact my suppliers directly so find out what offers they truly have. Those deals annoy planners as much as they annoy the travelers!

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Darren Cronian | 4 January, 2010 at 11:49 pm

@Caitlin

Here in Leeds I am seeing more specialised travel agents, i.e. destination specific opening up than the big tour ops like Thomson or independent agents. So, that’s good to see. We’ve seen a lot of travel agents close in the city centre, but surprisingly they are more travel agents in my town centre in Pudsey than any other type of shop.

@ Nick

Thanks for the link, will check it out. What was the reason for you not going down the coffee shop idea?

@ Maya

It’s quite surprising how many people I hear in the US who do not use a travel agent. Realistically though can you afford to spend a lot of time with one client? I know we have homeworking agents here in the UK and like Nick said, the independent agents which seem to take more time with customers.

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Pete | 4 January, 2010 at 11:51 pm

As a Non-European foreigner living in London, I can not believe that companies can still get away with advertising prices for flights that are practically impossible to book. Every other day on the tube I see an ad for an EasyJet flight for 29GBP to some beautiful exotic location. Both you and I know we are never going to fly for that price.

I really think guidelines should be put in place to show an average flight price on the route as well. Or at least some more transparency in what a realistic price would be.

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Cass | 6 January, 2010 at 11:36 pm

In no particular order…

1. I, for one, think it is absolutely brilliant that you think travel agents should be MORE socialable – I have never known such a ‘social’ incestuous industry!

However, I do take the seriousness behind your point… I think the reality of the problem for agents is timewasters. Perhaps the solution would be for consumers to pay a nominal fee for strategic advice – any other consultant would charge! Not heinous enough to deter custom but significant to create a barrier to entry for timewasters.

2. The Esta thing – DRIVES ME NUTS. Not least because I can never find the right blooming page for having to wade through all the money grabbing companies that are trying to charge people that really don’t know any better for the priviledge of filling in a five minute questionnaire – it really should be against some sort of advertising standard regulation – in fact I’m sure it must be. Consumer protection needs to step in.

3. Holiday Tricks – again, another bugbear. Nothing better to annoy your consumers than poorly managing their expectations – breeds customer loyalty that does – do businesses never think of the bigger picture anymore!? Particularly in the current climate – transparency is everything.

4. My own petty rant: when are we going to quit with ‘going through the motions’ security measures? Seriously, if I have some cataclysmic expolosive in my water bottle – the chances of me handing it over as I walk calmy toward immigration are truly minimal…
I wouldn’t like to speculate at the number of times I’ve walked through ‘security’ unknowingly with ‘tweezers’ or other questionable items. Stop putting thousands of people to ridiculous inconvenience for no apparent benefit – and seriously, if you make me sit down for the last hour of my flight – well, well, god help the person sat next to me!

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Darren Cronian | 7 January, 2010 at 12:08 am

@ Pete

I agree totally – I think other “low cost” airlines are worse in advertising flight prices. I think it is really important that people really do compare flights like for like and the only way to do that is by manually visiting the airline website – comparison sites don’t always include the extras.

@ Cass

Thanks for the comment. I am sure that they are timewasters, but charging consumers for advice is not the way to go about it I think. At the end of the day they are selling a product, and you charge for advice on holidays, everyone will want paying for advice.

As for airport security, it does seem petty some of the rules, hopefully with full body scanners this might mean some of these restricts are lifted. The last hour of the flight TSA ruling was stupid, and I think that they have not gone ahead with that ruling, not sure though.

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Heather | 8 January, 2010 at 11:31 pm

I think that if travel agents are giving specialist advice, it’s fair enough to expect them to spend some time with you and your requirements. But from their point of view I suspect that many must get frustrated by people who plug them for information and then go away and shop for the best deal online. I think if you have had good service from a travel agent then you should give them your custom if possible even if it’s a few pounds more expensive. It’s like your local high street shops – use it or lose it but don’t shop at the supermarket & then moan when your local businesses disappear.

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Malcolm Brownson | 25 January, 2010 at 7:31 pm

At the other end of the scale!! I recently ran some Low-Cost Budget type Ads! Only to have
responses like “Why so cheap? where’s the catch?/ etc etc! you cannot win!!
One idea i have toyed with is, asking for a finders fee! on the basis, that if the client goes away and finds a cheaper or better whatever type deal then you offer a Full Money back
Guarantee! Very often the client just requires reassurance that they have made the right choice!!
Well thats my theory!!LOL

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Nick | 13 March, 2010 at 12:25 pm

Darren

Sorry for the late reply. The reason we have not gone down coffee shop route is no empty shops in our town larger than our current shop. (our current shop being to small, even for our current use).

How ever being an independent we are friendly and do have customers who just come in for a chat.

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