GERMAN and Swiss tour operators are reporting a huge spike in stop-sale notices, particularly from Thai beach resorts, which they say is hindering growth.
Luzi Matzig, group CEO of Asian Trails, said that while he received two to five stop-sale mails daily in the past, the number was now between 12 and 25. He confirmed both Hotelplan and Kuoni Switzerland were seeing this.
Likewise, Wettstein’s product director Asia, Africa, Latin America, Christoph Infanger, said he was receiving at least thrice as many stop sales now, particularly for Thailand, despite the Swiss market being stable overall. “We could still generate more business but are closed out,” he said.
Some German tour operators too, are getting more stop sales despite strong growth. Marco Polo Reisen’s managing director, Holger Baldus, said for the first time ever, there was even “overbooking” in Hoi An, Vietnam. UK operators, however, said they did not notice changes beyond the usual festive periods.
Centara Hotels & Resorts’ SVP sales and marketing, Chris Bailey said the big issue was that European wholesalers had to keep prices down, especially in today’s financial climate, but there was only so much supply of lowest category room types.
“Often, the complaints come because lowest room type is closed yet others are all wide open. They need to work on their ability to up sell. This is where OTAs score over operators as they will sell what rooms there are available and at rates hotels want to sell at,” he said.
XML, which allows everyone to see and access available inventory, was the way to go, rather than giving allocations to operators, said Bailey.
– Read more in TTG Show Daily – ITB Berlin
