TravelMole Interview: Keith Webber, Telewest Travel

Telewest has released statistics that it says demonstrates that take-up of broadband among travel agents exceeds the UK business average.

Telewest Travel head, Keith Webber (pictured) told TravelMole: “We can demonstrate that the uptake in the travel industry is substantially higher than in other UK businesses.”

Telewest Travel says that 62% of new travel agency connections in the past six months have opted for broadband. They compare this to statistics released by the British Chamber of Commerce recently that found that UK businesses with broadband have increased from 19% to 39% in the past year.

Mr Webber told TravelMole that although Telewest could not be representative of the industry as a whole, it is the “industry leader”. He added that the figure 62% was an average over the past six months, and that the current figure of new customers opting for broadband is higher.

He said: “If you can look at the industry per se travel agents need to provide customers with a great deal of information, and broadband is more efficient at collecting this data. The other advantage is, of course, that it is always on. It is fine to go through the process of logging on at home, but it doesn’t look professional in the business environment.”

But Mr Webber said the main driver is price. “In a low-margin competitive business it is probably the price point that is driving the uptake.

“Broadband is very affordable. If you are dialling in to pick up Viewdata and the internet you will use a local call rate. Let’s say there is an agency with four staff who use Viewdata for one and a half hours and internet for half an hour a day each. This would cost around £300 a month. Compare this to an appropriate level of service from a broadband connection and you are looking at more like £89 a month.

“It is a bonus to agents that is has a higher bandwidth and extra speed.”

Mr Webber said that it is the independent agents that are embracing this technology: “Historically this has not been the case.

You take an agency that is making about £20,000 a year, then the cost savings they could generate by switching from dial usage to broadband is about 10%. There aren’t many things that can instantly improve margins by 10%.”

Mr Webber said that one of the main reasons why agents don’t take up broadband is that they may be in an area not covered by broadband. He said this accounts for about 20% of the UK at present, although this is up from 40% six months ago. He added: “There will never be complete coverage because it is an issue of cost versus return.

“We still offer managed lease line connections and always will. There are still some instances where broadband may not be appropriate like if people want a large private network and may want a mixture of broadband and lease line.”

Mr Webber said agents are increasingly using a leaseline as a back-up, or resilience system. He said: “It is a reversal from how it used to be, with the low price broadband providing a primary connection and the higher price lease line as resilience. We would always recommend resilience, but it is a business critical decision that can only be made by the agent.”