Derek Jones

I imagine organising royal honeymoons used to be quite straightforward.    A quick chat with Ma’am and the Royal Yacht would be given a swift polish and sent to a reasonably nice location to wait for the happy couple; Charles and Diana joined the yacht in Gibraltar and cruised the Med for a week before flying back to Scotland and Balmoral; Andrew and Sarah headed for the Azores and then sailed the Atlantic for five days. What now though for Wills and Kate?   Grandma’am has long since sold off the family ferry to pay off the tax man, leaving the young couple with something of a dilemma.   I can imagine them walking arm in arm into their local travel agent (Thomas Cook in Windsor I guess) and running through their requirements with the consultant: Somewhere nice and hot, not too ostentatious, good beach, connecting rooms (for the butler), British pub nearby.   No need to worry about the flight, we have our own plane. Maybe Will has seen Jamie Redknapp kicking...

Many of you will be familiar with the social networking site WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?).   It provides potential travellers with the opportunity to find out more about their next destination from people who have already visited. All very nice, but the one feature on WAYN that I can’t get enough of is the plain map of the world which automatically colours in all the countries you’ve been to. It’s great; I spent ages inputting all of my travel history thinking I would put Michael Palin in the shade but when I looked back at the map it was nearly all still plain white.   The trip to see Mickey Mouse back in 1999 had thankfully shaded in the whole of North America for me, and Australia last year made a big mark, but the Kenyan safari had only filled in a tiny proportion of Africa, the rest of which, apart from Egypt and Morocco , remained stubbornly blank. Time to think about this tactically; three visits to Hong Kong had made no discernable mark on the map but ...

In between starting my career in travel in 1988 and the morning of Thursday 15 April 2010 there were nearly 6,000 working days during which the potential threat of volcanic ash in UK airspace was specifically not mentioned.   I’ve attended countless contingency planning meetings where all manner of possible incidents have been discussed and prepared for.   Earthquakes, hurricanes, flu pandemics, terrorist incidents – you name it, we had a plan for it.   But the volcanic ash cloud scenario somehow never made an appearance. Eyjafjallajokull was travel's worst nightmare; an unpredictable natural event capable of completely paralyzing the UK travel industry and causing continuing disruption for weeks if not months.   But we had no warning that such an event was possible and consequently no contingency plan in place to respond.   All of which is a bit of a worry really. If we've been so badly caught out this time you have to wonder what other threats lu...

There are two very different reasons why I admire TIPTO.   Reason one: it's a great organisation bringing together the very best specialist tour operators and suppliers, and presenting their products to the independent agent community.   Reason two: it's right up there with the best acronyms in the travel industry.   TIPTO!   It's hard to imagine that name being conceived in a meeting room.   If you ask me, there was almost certainly alcohol involved and though I can't be sure, I suspect there were more women than men in the office (or pub) on that particular day.   The name TIPTO is just so light and dainty.   If it had been left to blokes it would have been called BIGTO or TONAIL or something. Fair play to TIPTO though; this is crowded market for acronyms so standing out is no easy feat. The travel business is in love with abbreviations; from the short ones like BA, to the big ones like CIMTIG; unpronounceable ones like PSARA, (which incident...

A new word has entered the English language; the ‘staycation’ is now officially recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary.   What nonsense! For those of you who might have missed it, according to Wikipedia a ‘staycation’ is ‘a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to local attractions’.   In other words, it’s what you do in your week off when you can’t afford a holiday. In the same way that brunch is both breakfast and lunch, a ‘staycation’ is supposed to be both a stay (at home) and a vacation.   I have a few issues with this not least the fact that nobody this side of the Atlantic ever goes on a vacation anyway.   Everybody knows that the correct local term is holiday, so in fact the proper word for a holiday at home should be a ‘homoliday’ – a home holiday.   Say it out loud, ‘Homoliday’.   This is a much more satisfying word. Now that we have a better word for it, ...

Mary Portas ‘Queen of Shops’ does not come across to the casual observer as someone who is often stuck for words, but after a barnstorming presentation in Madrid at last week’s Advantage Conference she was brought to a standstill by the very first question from the audience. For seasoned travel conference attendees the question was as familiar as the houses they live in: ‘How can travel agents stop customers from taking their advice then just walking away and booking on the internet?’    Good old Mary stood stock still in the scariest pair of open-toed wedge platform shoes I’ve ever seen and in a single word gave the most honest – and shortest - answer I’ve ever heard on a conference stage - ‘Dunno!’   To be fair to Mary I imagine she thought she was going to be asked how we should transform the travel agent experience, but she had over-estimated her audience.   Such questions are for other high street retailers – in travel it seems it’s just about the price....

How many brands are you really loyal to?   When the time comes to replace your car is it automatically another Ford, another BMW or another VW you choose?   When you head off for your weekly shop is it a regular visit to the same Tesco, or ASDA or Waitrose? And when it’s time to book your holiday is it Thomson, Thomas Cook or your local independent you turn to for advice and help? Loyalty is funny concept.   In my experience there are precious few things that people are categorically and consistently loyal to; sports teams, political parties, religions, family and country.   After that it seems to me it’s mostly all about convenience, habit and laziness.   I’m exceptionally loyal to the post office shop in my village for the sole reason that it’s a two minute walk from my front door.   When I do a big shop I know that ASDA is a little bit nearer than Tesco and probably cheaper, but I’m just in the habit of shopping at Tesco - it’s familiar and I know w...

Andrew Marr and James Naughty have both recently been guilty of the same unfortunate mistake when they inadvertently mis-introduced the ‘Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt’.   Strangely the same mispronunciation seemed to be affecting some parts of the travel industry last week, only this time it was harder to pin all the blame on Dr Spooner. Mr Hunt you see, has hit upon a plan so cunning that in the words of Blackadder ‘You could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.’   (Cunning Hunt… be careful!)   Starting next month, the Department of Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport will be spending £4 million pounds of taxpayers money on its biggest ever TV advertising blitz with one purpose in mind - to stop your customers going overseas on holiday this summer.   The strapline... ‘There’s so much happening in Britain in 2012, why on earth would you want to go abroad?’ Thanks Mr Hunt.   I imagine £4 million is just the interest you’ve earned this month on all tha...

For a country so close to one of our favourite Caribbean holiday destinations, Haiti has remained surprisingly untouched by tourism.   Despite sharing the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic , a destination visited over the last ten years by millions of British holidaymakers, for the majority of us in the UK travel industry Haiti is seldom mentioned and almost never visited. Haiti receives fewer than a million visitors each year and of these about 600,000 come by cruise ship and don’t stop over, and an estimated 350,000 are Haitian expats returning to visit family.   Last week’s devastating earthquake has left the country shattered, with Haiti ’s Prime Minister warning that the eventual death toll could be more than 100,000.   In the immediate aftermath of most natural disasters, the travel industry is generally focused on the safety and well-being of customers, and in the longer term, working with local partners to help rebuild the infra...

Even by the standards of the travel industry last week was a tumultuous one.   As I write, Thomas Cook’s share price is trading at 67 having been at 200 in January, and Gill’s Cruise Centre is officially no longer trading at all, having been sold on as part of a pre-pack administration deal. On the face of it these two events appear to be unconnected; Thomas Cook a victim of the Arab Spring, with demand for their charter based holidays in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco negatively impacted by political events in the region; Gill’s thrown off course by an expensive relocation to central London and then struggling to come to terms with the commission reductions recently announced by major cruise lines. This isn’t the first time we’ve had major players experiencing difficulties - think of Airtours and Cruise Control - but it is the first time it’s happened in the era of social media.   If you were on Twitter at the weekend you may have seen Thomas Cook trending in the ...

At the risk of sounding a bit weird, I often find myself quietly analysing the way people behave in certain situations.   One that’s always intrigued me is the last few minutes of a formal business meeting; the bit after the main purpose of the meeting has been achieved but before the meeting is properly over. After a polite bit of banter there’s generally a signal from the host that time’s up; ‘Well, thanks for coming over…’ is always a good one.   Then everyone stands up and shuffles round the room trying to shake everyone else’s hand.   Sometimes this involves a lot of hand shaking and close attention is required to avoid inadvertently shaking the hand of a colleague, or shaking the same hand twice, but with practice anyone can do it. And then the business cards come out, or at least they did until recently when suddenly a new and unexpected twist began to emerge.   Instead of proffering a business card people started to ask if I was on Facebook and ...

There’s a link on the front page of the Kuoni website which customers can click on to find their nearest Kuoni Specialist Agent.   A few weeks ago Liz Warner was talking to an independent agent who told her that as a direct result of this feature he had made eight Kuoni bookings with a combined commission value of over £4,000.   I’m guessing that most travel agents reading this will immediately think two things. Firstly, ‘Why is Kuoni sending web customers to independent agents?’ closely followed by ‘Crikey!   Is Liz Warner still at Kuoni?’   To answer the second question first: yes she is!   Between them, Liz and her colleagues in Trade Relations have over 75 years experience so they know a thing or two about looking after travel agents!   Kuoni Specialist Agents benefit from a huge range of activities.   As well as being featured on the Kuoni website, they receive priority educational places and invitations to overseas seminars (over 70...

At the Travel Convention a few weeks ago the very likeable Micky Arison, Chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation and one of the most powerful men in the Cruise Industry looked befuddled as the interviewer persisted with an unusual line of questioning: The Global Credit crunch means that Cruise companies are struggling to fill their cabins so prices have been lowered to stimulate demand.   A few weeks ago there was a fight involving some of Carnival's customers.   This fight was clearly caused by someone who shouldn't be able to afford a cruise.   Will the economic downturn inevitably lead to the ruination of our holidays as the riff raff sweep in, get drunk, fight and generally spoil it for the rest of us? I confess I'm paraphrasing a bit but those that witnessed this sparkling debate will confirm that this was not the end of the discussion.   We were then presented with further cast iron proof that only the affluent can be trusted not to sort out their d...

As the autumnal clouds gathered and the tops of the trees began to bend in the wind, Natalie delivered another unique insight… ‘It’s back to School weather’ she said.   Despite not having gone back to school for the last thirty years, there’s still something about the changing weather and the shorter days that triggers an association with the new school year.   I suddenly have an irresistible urge to buy a new compass set from W H Smith and to back my books with woodchip wallpaper. For the Travel Industry, it’s not New Year when we reflect on the year just gone; it’s the start of the new school year.   We say goodbye to the kids at the school gate breathe a sigh of relief, then head straight to the office to digest the numbers and review the margins.   Summer’s gone, it’s time to take stock and plan another year.   Groundhog Day. But this time round it all feels a bit different.   When Millie (aged 6) started Big School last September the financia...

Now that the dust is starting to settle, I’ve been trying to get to grips with why Complete Cruise Solutions would court such controversy and risk so much business by radically reducing their commission. To understand the root cause of the current predicament that cruise companies find themselves in, it’s necessary to travel back in time to when the High Street was beginning to be dominated by the vertically integrated travel agencies.   One in particular had a very aggressive discount policy.   In a relatively short space of time Lunn Poly managed to create for itself a virtuous circle; growing market share with unprecedented discounting, then translating the resulting volume into higher commissions which in turn allowed for even harder discounting. The non-vertically integrated tour operators and cruise companies found themselves with a difficult choice to make: Pay higher commissions and keep the sales coming in or walk away and rely solely on independent agen...

Almost exactly six months ago today, we removed all on-line discounts from the Kuoni website creating a completely level playing field for agents.   Since then we’ve been closely monitoring our performance by channel to evaluate the impact. A number of interesting things have happened to convince us that we’re on the right track.   Most notably, we’ve seen a significant increase in sales enquiry conversion across all of our distribution channels – trade and direct.   We’re not surprised - our assertion was always that customer behaviour has evolved.   The internet is now an integral part of the shopping experience, used to guide the buying process, but it’s not necessarily the way customers want to book.   They will book online when it’s convenient for them and when they have all of the facts they need, but they intensely dislike being forced to in order to achieve a saving.   Presented with the same price in all channels, customers will generally migr...