Travel agents set for uncertain summer
Sunday 23rd May 2010, 11:29AM BST.
Travel agents across the Midlands are bracing themselves for a drop in summer holiday bookings with disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud putting people off taking to the skies.
Some holidaymakers in the region are refusing to commit to flights with uncertainty over whether British airspace will be open when they travel, while many families are still feeling the pinch from the economic downturn, with bookings for July and August much lower than expected.
Birmingham Airport faced more chaos last Sunday when it was forced to close to passengers for six hours after the ash cloud returned, while a six-day closure last month is believed to have cost the airport £1.8 million in lost revenue.
Holiday firms are now starting to pay the price as well with holidaymakers reluctant to book flights in case they are cancelled.
Davinder Chopra, of Travel My World in West Bromwich, says customers had not been booking flights for July and August, which they would normally have done so by now.
“There is a lot of uncertainty,” he added.
Judy Beardsmore, a travel consultant at Ken Towe travel based in Station Street, Walsall, said: “People are a bit wary because British Airways are striking, there are issues in Bangkok and Greece, and the volcano. Wherever you go there might be a problem.”
Kim Greatrex, of Thompson, in Queen Street, Wolverhampton, said sales had remained good but customers had been asking about insurance policies and contingency plans.
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We are due to fly to Benalmadena in September. It’s a few months away yet, but no-one knows whether the ash cloud will still be there or the volcano may erupt again. Fingers crossed that all will be well. Safety first though, for all crew and passengers. Always!!
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Meanwhile a travel agent in Queen Street blames the bus station closure for losing business. Compensation culture?
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Yesssssssssss, at last these travel industry workers are paying the price for the shoddy holidays and services they have been selling us for years.
Our last holiday was at the Eden Alcudia hotel, at the Alcudia resort, Majorca.
The travel agent was Travel Republic, we arrived at the hotel, went to our room and looked out from the balcony, all we could see was the top of a tree and the hotel rubbish bins, our apartment was in a side street and all day long we had to suffer the smell and the noise of the delivery lorries, because of the foliage of the tree, the balcony was always dark and didn’t get any sun.
I contacted reception and asked to see the manager, after informing her of my medical conditions and explaining how being that close to the top of the tree would effect it, I was told that I should have told them when I booked the holiday, even though when I booked the holiday online there was no facility to make them aware of my situation.
Eventually because I insisted on being transferred to another room that we didn’t get, the manager told us “she didn’t want people like us in her hotel and we should go somewhere else if we were not happy”
When I contacted Travel Republic as per their instructions, “contact us immediately you get to the holiday destination if there is a problem” they didn’t want to know!!!! After returning home and again trying to get compensation for the holiday from hell, they still were not interested.
They had sold us the holiday; they had got their money and as far as they were concerned that was the end of the matter, bet they would take a different view now.
I hope a few travel agents do go to the wall, perhaps the ones left will get the message and will give better value and service next time.
Jim of Bearwood.
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