The price is not right

CALLS for tighter regulation around the use of claims such as “typically” or “valued at” within travel advertising by deals companies & disruptors continues to be a hot button topic impacting upon retail travel agents.

The Australian Travel Agents Co-operative (ATAC) Chairman Ken Morgan told Travel Daily his members were concerned about such claims made in weekend newspapers by disruptors, which were misleading and sent the wrong message to consumers.

“From a marketing point of view there’s a lot of advertising which claims to sell a tour at $2.5k but the price is typically $7k or the claim is usually $10k.

“Those numbers are unverifiable,” Morgan said.

He said that feedback from ATAC’s members was if customers call in relation to such advertising that they can generally “match it or beat it and give them better customer service.”

“It’s just that opportunity that we’re missing out on when a customer just rings those companies because of the advertising claims because they don’t know any better,” he said.

Morgan’s comments reinforce those by Council of Australian Tour Operators Chairman Dennis Bunnik (TD 13 Jun) who said, “our calculation is that they are ripping many tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars of sales out of the retail travel network.”

Morgan said there needed to be more action by the ACCC, noting several complaints had already been lodged with the body.

“It’s about accountability that those guys should have to be transparent in their pricing and advertising,” he argued.