The Role of the Tour Operators in the new era of Tourism where internet is getting stronger

Many of us who defend the disintermediation of tourism and that the traditional tour operators had no place in the tourism market as intermediates, it is now proven that we are wrong. We are wrong since customers need a Big Guy to place their complaints. Here are some examples of REAL customer complaints. This was sent from a Major UK Tour Operator - listing some of the British guests' complaints during the year 2008.

"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

"It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned."

"On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."

"We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".

A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she'd been locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the "do not disturb" sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

"The beach was too sandy."

"We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."

A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

"Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."

"We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five Euros (£3.50) from a streettrader, only to find out they were fake."

"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."

"It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England, it only took the Americans three hours to get home."

"I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."

"The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"

"There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."

"We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."

"It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

"I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."

"My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room, but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

I hope you enjoyed the quotes. This post has as objective to amuse the readers as well as show in a funny way that Tourism needs all of us since our customers' needs vary so much.

Blaming the CTO is easy!! Helping the CTO should be a national compromise.

The Cypriot Tourist Industry has a false opinion about the capabilities of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation. Blaming the CTO is very easy. People like Mr. Noel Josephides, Managing Director of Sunvil Holidays and Chairman of the Association of Greek Cypriot Travel Agents (UK), took the CTO to task for its bureaucracy and lack of responsiveness.

I would give an advice to the Greek Cypriots Travel Agents in the UK. Have some "Tourist Patriotism". Stop selling Turkey and Egypt, become real specialist on Cyprus as destination and not specialists on exploiting hotels. The tour operators that made most harm in the Cypriot Hoteliers is nobody else but members of your association, Libra Holidays, Argo Holidays just to mention the ones that busted the small hotelier in Cyprus last year.

I find the article of Cyprus Mail unfortunate and I think is time to grab the bull from the horns. The crisis can only be faced with imagination, good pricings, added value and unity. Mr. Josephides please stop blaming the CTO and look how you can help them in their task.

The big opportunity of the incoming agents in the Mediterranean to go against the crisis

Semantic web, Web 2.0, collaborative marketing.… All these sound Chinese to most of us in the travel world. When your job has been going to the airport every week to check the arrival list “your” Tour Operator sent you and contrast it with the actual arrivals : then make sure, all got their luggage, their visas, their folder with the information and they are all the transfer bus heading for the hotel you have no reason why you should think you need to do any kind of marketing and even less any e-marketing.

Well things are changing, the tourists have created a new relationship with the destination, we know have a C2C relationship and this model the incoming agent is not in the scene simply because he is not there where the conversation takes place. C2C means Customer to Customer relationship, this means that when the 2 potential customers, Mr. C1 talks to Mr.C2 the incoming travel agent needs to listen to them, needs to be there, close to the conversation and change its services adequately to make them more “sexy”. Change it can only mean that instead of offering pre set sight seen trips to Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Egypt or Sicily he could offer a la carte guided tours after he identified the customers interests. If someone does not like museums why on earth give him a museum brochure. Listen what he likes and then when he arrives to the airport surprise him with a service. I like fishing, well when I arrive to Larnaca and see that my rep has book for me about the fishing in Cyprus and the types of fish I could catch then I will feel special , he/she gained my trust and this is priceless.

The question now is… can this happen online? Well yes, not only it happens now but is already a trend in other sectors. We need the leaders in our area to invest on “semantic tourism”.

Traditional Travel Agent Services to challenge Online Airline Services

All of us who remember how we used to go to the Travel Agent of our town to buy a ticket should also remember the blue Sabre or Amadeus screen where the lady who worked there used to type in those complex codes. Well whatever this lady could do on her screen we can now do it from home. All, or almost all state owned (or ex state owned airlines – including Cyprus Airways) have now a web site where the passenger himself can make a booking, pay and even get his/her boarding pass.

So why do we need travel agents? This question was made to me during our event in Limassol last month. Travel agents who live on ticketing have little future? Will they disappear? My opinion is that they will not disappear, they will have to adapt.

I was in the office of my travel agent in Nicosia the other day and what impressed me more were the answers the ladies and gentlemen that work there could answer over the phone in a very natural and sure manner. Questions that not even Google can answer that quickly and that accurately.

They were just brilliant, … no sir no worries your flight is confirmed and the assistance for your mother is also confirmed. You will have someone to pick her up in Rome to help her in the airport. His phone is ….

So my advice is, if you are a travel agent, offer good personalised service!! If you are a frequent or not so frequent flyer pay those 30 Euros service charge so you get tranquillity when you fly, every cent is worth it. Now if you are an airline invest in your web since not all of us have the luxury to book a flight on working hours.

In my way of seeing things the challenge is for the Airlines, they need to offer excellent web services to compete with the professionalism of the travel agents and not vice versa.

Have a good flight