Not wishing to cause any issues or start any arguments here (I'm on your side) but I have noticed a lot of bad feelings towards the big Tour Operators. I only work with the guys who fly the plane but this does get me involved with other aspects of the business so I do from time to time get to see the inner workings and the people do work hard to give everyone a really good end product.
A lot of the visitors to this forum (including myself) are seasoned travellers and confident about going abroad, thus we prefer to make our own travel arrangements and rightly so. There are a considerably larger group of people though who are less confident and have very little understanding of what is involved. To these passengers they expect to pay the money and have everything done for them and this is where the big four tour operators come in (well perhaps soon to be 3 but I didn't just say that). These people do not have the time or simply don't want to go through all the effort of booking the components separately or independently. To be honest when I visit my Mum in summer I will book through Thomas Cook, as it is often the cheapest and safest option. I am guaranteed to get to Corfu and back whatever happens, my transfers are included and I have the services of a Rep if something goes wrong. I also know if something goes wrong with the holiday or flights I will be looked after until I get home. The last thing in the world I would want to happen is to be left to struggle to get home by myself in a foreign country, just read the papers it does unfortunately happen.
I know things go wrong (I see the complaints), in what business do they not and ours is especially volatile but some of my best friends here are employed to make things better and improve things. Companies such as ours often seem like big faceless entities (a name I was called recently) just trying to suck in people’s money. Yes we are a business and there are tight margins to meet but this is not at people’s expense.
Getting back on track seeing I was drifting off topic there I really believe for what is provided to the average holidaymaker in taking a package holiday the price is very reasonable, margins are so tight these days that holidays are even being sold at a loss, I can see on the computers plenty of holidays to Corfu for a week under £200, flights, meals, taxes and transfers included for less than the price of an Ipod, if someone is making serious profit out of all this its not the big travel companies. Perhaps the local hoteliers could make more money selling the rooms independently but the tour operators guarantee to fill the rooms all summer so if the room sits empty they will still get a set rate for it, in this way income is assured and all the advertising is done for them.
Just to reiterate I’m not getting at any one post I’m just playing Devils Advocate as I do see what happens on the other side. I am under no illusions the big companies always get it right but I do believe they supply a good and needed product.
Hoping I’ve not upset anyone and seeing this thread is called “cheap flights” and not “Joe goes off on one” if anybody has dates they want me to check, much like last year the offers still open and if I have time I will run the numbers and see if I can find you any good flight deals.
Happy holidays
Joe
