Travel agents go on a publicity offensive

Travel agents in Germany are taking to the airwaves to try to persuade consumers to continue booking their holidays and other travel services with them, and not to book direct via the internet. The new “image campaign” was unveiled at last week’s annual conference of the German Travel Association (DRV) on Tenerife.

The new radio advertising campaign will run under the slogan “Reisebüro. Lassen Sie kümmern!”, which can be translated as “Travel agency. We look after you!” The idea is to convince consumers that travel agencies, with their personal advice and customer service, remain the best places to select and book holidays. The short adverts will be broadcast 768 times on a total of 111 radio stations across Germany in February 2007. A total of 3,600 travel agencies have signed up to finance the campaign.

DRV president Klaus Laepple pointed out that while tour operators had succeeded in improving their profit margins this year, even the leading travel agency groups had a profit margin of under 1%. Instead of cutting commissions, tour operators had to consider how to share profits with travel agencies which remained their dominant distribution channel. “We need tourism distribution models designed for the future which enable all partners to make a profit,” Laepple declared. At the same time, operators should develop new products to differentiate themselves more strongly from directly-sold supplier offers.

Laepple also called for an end to German and EU laws forcing tour operators to offer holidays at prices printed in the holiday brochures. “Flights, hotels and hire cars have for a long time been offered at daily rates in other distribution channels. But tour operators who combine these services into packages are bound to the printed prices,” he pointed out. The DRV would lobby for an end to this outdated “anachronism” both in Berlin and Brussels.

Turning to destination trends this year, Laepple pointed out that Turkey had suffered in particular this year from widespread media coverage of the “bird flu” outbreak, as consumers turned quickly to destinations perceived as “safe” instead. Tourism ministers in destinations affected by problems should in future react quickly by providing information about measures being taken in order to retain consumer confidence, he urged.