War of words is healthy: Comment by Jeremy Skidmore
During these difficult times for the travel industry, you can often hear people say that companies should pull in the same direction and stop cutting each other’s throats.
Wouldn’t the industry be far better off if everyone just worked together?
No. In fact, the leaders of the major travel companies would all be in prison if they worked together.
Collusion is, you see, illegal. And a lack of competition makes companies lazy, inefficient, poor at customer service and profitable when they’ve got no right to be.
Everyone fighting to outdo each other and prove that they have something better to offer than their rivals is what pushes companies to offer better products at a fair price.
Service standards in mass-market holidays have risen massively in the past 15 years and that is solely down to competition. Do you honestly think MyTravel or Thomson or First Choice or Thomas Cook would have bothered to improve their holidays if they had been the only big company around and most families had no option but to choose them?
Would an upmarket company have such high service standards if they were the only ones operating in their market? I don’t think so.
These people who call for companies to work together are living in cloud cuckoo land. How would they feel if, for example, every car dealer worked together and they were offered the same price (a very high one) and the same level of service (a very low one) wherever they went?
Competition is great for the consumer because it keeps prices competitive and standards high. And it’s great for companies because it keeps them on their toes.
Unfortunately some firms will not survive the current downturn. But that is far healthier than having a cosy little industry where everyone scratches each other’s back.
Read previous comments by Jeremy:
02-May-2003 Management must share the pain: Comment by Jeremy Skidmore
25-April-2003 Home workers no longer the poor relations
25-April-2003 Appointment of Tobias is welcome
17-April-2003 Domestic operators must help the trade
11-April-2003 Timeshare offers retailers a crumb of comfort
28-March-2003 A ‘go
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