Agents lambasted over fam behaviour

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Agent fam trips could soon be a thing of the past, tourism boards have warned.

VisitBritain has expressed its outrage at the attitude of travel agents towards familiarisation (fam) trips.

The Dubai branch of the UK's tourism agency is angry that agents who took part in a recent educational to Scotland have made no effort to sell the destination since their return.

"Not one of them has sold a package to Scotland," said Hana Abdulla, the media and trade relations executive at VisitBritain's Dubai office.

"They haven't even started contacting the hotels in Scotland about putting together packages and deals."

The fam trip, which took place in May after Arabian Travel Market, saw 10 top UAE agents fly with Emirates Airline to Glasgow and then be shown the sights of Scotland by VisitBritain's regional marketing manager (Middle East), Carol Maddison.

They were hosted by a variety of top-end properties including The Balmoral in Edinburgh and Aviemore Highland Resort in Cairngorm National Park.

"They stayed at some beautiful places, but came back with nothing," said Abdulla. "I wouldn't mind, but it's not as if Scotland is virgin territory that no one knows about, with no facilities; it's a country that's been around forever, and could be combined with a trip to London, for example."

Abdulla accused the travel agents of "going along for a freebie" and passing the buck to their respective holidays divisions by claiming it was their job to sell.

"If that's the case, then they should push their holidays divisions to sell Scotland.

"If we don't get any results soon I will be speaking to their managers or superiors to complain," she said.

As a result of agents' post-fam apathy, Abdulla said VisitBritain would "think twice" about organising future fam trips: "We will make sure that if we do another one, we'll ask specific agents with whom we already have a relationship," she added.

VisitBritain is not the only tourism agency to bemoan the quality and behaviour of agents taking part in fams.

In June, ATN reported how Tourism Australia was already charging agents in some countries to take part in fam trips to ensure they were committed to showing up.

TA's partnership and distribution manager for South East Asia and Gulf Countries, Stephen Cheah, said travel agents in India and some Asian countries were being slapped with a fee of around AU $75 ($62) to attend fam trips Down Under and was considering implementing this strategy in the Middle East some time soon.

"What we are saying is that if you are going to quibble over seventy five dollars, you are not committed to selling Australia," he explained. "Once travel agents pay up we know there is a good chance they will attend."

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