‘I’m the only independent in the village’
An agent claiming to be the only independent in an Essex town has been given a slap on the wrist by the Advertising Standards Agency.
One of only two agents in Great Dunmow, Dalton Travel, had claimed to be ‘Dunmow’s only Specialist Independent Travel Agent’ in a regional press advertisement earlier this year.
The advert’s claim was challenged by rival agency, Flitch Travel, which said it was also a specialist independent agent in the town.
In evidence, Dalton Travel’s owner, Colchester Travel, stated it was a family-run travel agent with four branches in Essex.
The company had purchased Dalton Travel from the previous owner, who continued to work for them, and retained the name of the business.
It argued Flitch Travel could not claim to be truly independent because it is a trading division of Hays Travel Ltd and its membership of ABTA, ATOL and IATA is held in the name of Hays Travel and liability under these bodies rests with Hays.
Colchester Travel added the complainant’s website stated ‘Flitch Travel sells travel services on behalf of Hays Travel Ltd’ and said it could be argued that the complainant was not a travel agent, but a management company working for Hays Travel.
The ASA agreed Dalton Travel and Flitch Travel are the only travel agencies with bricks and mortar premises in Dunmow, Essex and there is no established definition of ‘independent’ within the travel industry.
But the ASA ‘noted from general observation that the term was commonly used by travel agents and travel industry bodies to refer to the fact that a travel agent was not tied to a major tour operator and therefore did not have a financial motivation to promote the packages of any one provider over another’.
It also noted that, while Flitch Travel is a member of the Hays Independence Group, Dalton Travel is part of the Advantage Group.
The ASA said: "Although there was no industry-standard definition of an ‘independent’ travel agent, we understood that the term was commonly used to mean ‘independent from major tour operators’ and considered that it would be understood as such by consumers.
"Because Flitch Travel was not tied to any major UK tour operators, it could be considered to have met the criteria for this definition of an ‘independent’ travel agent.
"On that basis, and given that we considered that both the complainant and the advertiser could be termed ‘specialist’ travel agents as stated above, we concluded that Dalton Travel’s claim to be ‘Dunmow’s only Specialist Independent Travel agent’ had not been substantiated and was misleading.
"The ad must not appear again in the form complained about. We told Colchester Travel Ltd to ensure that they held sufficient evidence to substantiate their marketing claims."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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