Fair And Balanced

Fox News claims they are fair and balanced. I like to think this blog is as well. We present facts, backed up by documentation and we are willing to make corrections when we make an error. Of course there is a great deal of opinion as well.

Speaking of opinion, the publisher of Travel Research Online has a very fair and balanced opinion piece on how the industry has arrived at the place we are today. Certainly the MLMs are an issue and they are called out. But are they the cause of the problem? Not at all.

We have said that the suppliers and associations are the ones that have allowed the problem to get out of hand. We have said that the suppliers and associations are the best suited to fix it.

Mr. Earls tends to agree and in this piece entitled "A State of Disarray", he challenges the industry suppliers, the industry associations and the industry at large to get their act together and police themselves

A Partnership With An Uninsurable Operator!

About a week ago, a press release was issued about a travel MLM firm offering trips to Europe. It was even picked up as "news" by Modern Agent. In reading the release, I shake my head. Is it such a monumental task to be able to sell trips to Europe--like no one has ever done it? I also wonder why other agencies are not getting equal time in the press on their marketing efforts.

But as I read a little deeper, this was announcing a partnership with the same Chinese firm that is providing Olympic Packages (oops, Summer Event Packages...more on that later) for the agency. Now why on earth is a US based company partnering with an Asian company to provide travel to Europe? It just does not make sense! I don't see any European agencies partnering with Apple Vacations to provide travel to South Africa.

Certainly with the number of "agents" in place, it makes sense to seek out USTOA members? If not for a marketing advantages, how about the consumer protection membership brings? Are the clients of this "agency" very confident in Shanghai Springs? If the Olympic (oops, my bad ...Summer Event) sales are any indication, I guess not.

Now I have heard rumors that there is a continuous line of travel suppliers lining up to do business with this "agency". I would think that with all those options, it might make sense to partner with a company in the US that might be held accountable by US laws and not Chinese laws.

What do their current European vendors have to say. Collette Tours and Trafalgar. Seems like it is eroding the market share to me. Well, I guess if there was no market share to erode it is a moot point.

I just see this as yet another warning flag. Not only are we dealing with a company whose upper management has zero travel industry experience, but we are dealing with a sales force that is minimally trained and now the fulfillment is coming from a foreign corporation. There is zero protection for the consumer. Are the "agents" or the websites advising that this supplier is NOT COVERED by travel insurance? They are not on the Access America approved list of suppliers. So, if a policy is sold, the customer is SOL if the supplier defaults on the agreement.

But as the "agency" preys on the naive to join, I suppose the "agents" prey on the naive to buy! Good luck with that!