Thomas Cook calls for more straight talking with independent agents
Thomas Cook has called for more ‘straight talking’ in its discussions with Advantage Travel Centres over the consortium’s supplier charter.
Speaking as part of a panel debate at this week’s Advantage Conference, Cook’s head of merchandising Phil Gardner said it was the travel giant’s ‘intention’ to sign up to the charter, but he refused to be drawn on whether this was imminent.
Instead he said there was ‘quite a bit of detail’ to work through and called for ‘more straight talking’ and ‘less legal speak’ in talks between the two parties.
Since the Advantage Partnership Charter was introduced in 2014, Advantage said 87 of its 130 supplier partners have now signed up to the terms, which include providing agency members with a freephone number and dedicated member support.
The criteria also disallows suppliers from taking a booking direct when a member has already given a customer a quote.
Despite now promising price parity, Thomas Cook has come under fire from independent agents for offering better prices direct to consumers.
But Gardner told Advantage delegates these offers were only on a small scale and were ‘discreet’, for example vouchers with Groupon.
He said if customers tell agents they’ve seen a lower price elsewhere, and they are not ‘low volume and discreet’, agents are invited to ‘pick up the phone and speak to us about it’.
"Independent agents are absolutely a key part of our distribution model," said Gardner.
"We have targeted double digit capacity growth and we simply can’t achieve that without the support of the trade."
Thomas Cook has recently looked at its business partnerships and claims it now has a much better understanding of the way it works with agents.
"We’ve not gone for a one size fits all policy," added Gardner.
"We’ve gone for an open conversation with more straight talking, and are confident we understand what agents need. Those that do more sales for us will be rewarded."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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