Thailand blog as a cause of Thomas Cook's demise…
Thomas Cook in Brussels (Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com)
For years I have been intrigued by the curious social phenomenon known as mass tourism. A phenomenon in which large segments of the population are - temporarily - directed south in droves every year, in exactly the opposite direction that tens of thousands of others have taken in recent years, driven by a compelling socio-economic necessity for them.
A few months ago, when the dark clouds began to gather over the – now largely bankrupt – travel company Thomas Cook, I wrote on Thailandblog an article about the historic role this tour operator has played in opening up Thailand and all of Southeast Asia to tourism. We have known for a few days now that this role has now finally been played out and that organized mass tourism has received a blow that it may not be able to recover from…
Today I would like to share with you a very personal theory about how a travel blog like Thailandblog contributed to the downfall of a former travel giant like Thomas Cook.
Traveling à la Thomas Cook was traveling according to a concept that has been tried and tested for decades and has hardly changed: an international, widely branched network of offices and agents, a (charter) trip arranged down to the last detail and the essential travel guide that the traveler - literally and figuratively - – to keep on the straight and narrow. The dream of the biblical tract selling but above all very ambitious Thomas Cook of edifying and instructive holidays for the people, however, got bogged down in flat mass tourism of often very noisy and grouchy Germans and British who turned into binge drinkers who got drunk cheaply on all kinds of Costas, on Ibiza or the Greek Islands. Not really surprising that in recent years this form of massively organized travel has ended up in an existential crisis. A crisis, which reached a tragic culmination this week in the images of the abandoned herd animals who, pushing each other away and bleating loudly, stumbled towards the gates…
It is not for nothing that more and more potential travelers have dropped out in recent years. This trend shift is accompanied by another remarkable phenomenon: People no longer want to be led by the hand. The classic tour guide is dead and buried together with Thomas Cook Travel. Many people are fed up with the imposed patterns and pre-planned routes and routes. They want a world that can be explored again and why not? A touch of adventure….
Today's self-confident and empowered travelers have their own agendas. They themselves, on their own, find their way in the digital jungle and search for their dream destination via the internet. Websites like Thailandblog are acting more and more as the new tour guides. Experts by experience like your servant and the other writers on this blog are the new beacon of inquiry. Never tired and accessible seven out of seven and 24 out of 24… Potential travelers are barely a mouse click away from everything they wanted to know but never dared to ask…. It may sound a bit sloganesque, but it is an undeniable reality: Thailandblog makes a world of difference
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Nothing is as risky as blaming someone!
It is often the beginning of a whole lot of reactions.
It's also how you view the situation. If you shift the point of view or starting point, the responsibility will undoubtedly also shift.
You can also put it like this:
– It is not the fault of Thailandblog, but the readers of Thailandblog, because they are not satisfied with the packages offered. Don't forget that other tour operators, such as Connections and Joker, also sell travel packages. They keep it up…
of
– It is the fault of Thomas Cook, because they do not take into account the messages and reactions as in Thailandblog and other media…
of
- you name it!
I'm not trying to pinpoint the culprit here.
I have heard, however, that the bosses of Thomas Cook have pocketed many bonuses and that the duped travelers and hotels have to pay extra bills. Moreover, employees who have fully committed themselves are on the street again. Let us think about that.
In Belgium, the guarantee fund partially intervenes financially for stranded travelers and those who have booked a trip in the near future. I don't know if there is such a thing in the Netherlands.
Regards,
Daniel M.
The Netherlands has the SGR see http://www.sgr.nl
Now a guarantee fund for separate airline tickets because they are not covered if an airline goes bankrupt, which happens quite often.
Most of the blame for this demise has certainly not been Thailandblog nl's recently posted article.
Although I personally find Thailandblog nl a nice and sometimes very interesting blog, it certainly does not have the power to negatively influence the business of a giant, as Thomas Cook used to be.
The vast majority of his clients consist of nationalities who do not even speak the Dutch language, so that if they came across this site at all, they could not read a word of it.
Even among the Dutch and Belgians who previously booked with Thomas Cook, as long as they didn't accidentally plan to book a trip to Thailand, the Interest in this blog is almost negligible.
The demise of this Empire undoubtedly has a number of other causes, among which perhaps the indestructible monopolistic feeling, and the overslept of not switching to the Internet market in time, may have been the most important faults.
As a former tour guide in Asia for many years (and hopefully far from dead and buried) there are a few caveats here. The once thriving OAD similarly went down. At a time when Fox, for example, grew very quickly by working exclusively via the internet, by continuing fearlessly with takeovers of local travel agencies in towns and cities. A costly matter. People may have picked up nice brochures at such a travel agency, then picked up the currants at home and booked via the internet. Thomas Cook also has dozens, hundreds of travel agencies, often at A locations, so high rental costs in addition to the enormous personnel costs.
Fox is still very successful with group travel, as is Kras.. After all, there are always people who opt for convenience, who let themselves be guided around the most interesting places on earth, especially the less trodden destinations.
Thomas Cook worked with an outdated formula and did not keep up with the extra possibilities of the internet. Many travel agencies have already gone under and will continue to do so.
For people who can't handle a computer, they have someone in their circle of acquaintances
who can provide them with the correct information.
If a travel agency is not specialized in something, then I have a gloomy view of this industry.
Pride to think that Thailand blog has anything to do with the demise of Thomas Cook.
The share of Dutch and Belgians who use the travel organization is negligible.
150.000 from the UK to be brought back. And then those who travel.
Thailand's share is minimal who use Thomas Cook.
Travel within Europe, share Greece where they own hotels and wholly dependent hotels.
Given the amount of bookings and accommodations, the overhead costs are probably too high.
And most payments are made in advance while the hotels etc are paid afterwards there should have been a huge cash flow.
There will always be a group of travelers who book through a travel agency. Informative and everything arranged for them.
If you see Thailand blog as an informative travel agency then many articles about visas etc are just ballast. Internet has made it easier and more adventurous.
Organized travel has advantages and disadvantages just like arranging it yourself.
Traveling by bus to Spain, which was hot 20 years ago, is now over and out.
Society is changing.
I think the need for organized travel has simply diminished.
People no longer want to be dragged from one hotel to another on vacation.
Furthermore, since the internet it has become much easier to find a hotel, they are all on the internet.
You used to have to call (guilders per minute to Thailand), or write a letter to a hotel, now you send an email, so why do you still need a travel agency?
I consider myself one of the culprits, because I have worked for more than 20 years on the digitization of society and on the emergence of the internet.
In the 90s I only booked a ticket and once in Bangkok I saw it. Visited beautiful locations, met fantastic people. Never happened to me with a tour guide.
For example, I have traveled all over the world without using a travel agency. I didn't feel obligated to at all.
Organized trips… well, but we just book the flight and the hotels with transfers for Thailand.
And it's not because we stay in a few hotels that we stay on site all the time. We do a lot of day trips.
So we use Thomas Cook and have booked a trip for 5 weeks to Thailand with departure on November 8
Why don't we book this ourselves via the internet?
Simply because it is cheaper through the Thomas Cook travel agency.
If we book our hotels directly, those prices are just much more expensive.
To our great regret we heard today that all trips have been cancelled. Now trying to get our 1500 euro advance back through the guarantee fund. This week we had to pay the balance and fortunately this has not happened yet.
This would be our 12th Thailand trip but now we have to start looking again.
Dear Dear, There are indeed certain offers that cost just as much or even less in a travel agency.
Yet when booking hotels, flights and especially transfers I have much cheaper prices than in a travel agency.
Many who also book their flights and hotels on the Internet will certainly agree with me.
You can be glad for your trip of November 8 that you have not yet paid the final Balance.
Even for the deposit of 1500 Euro, it is not at all certain that this amount will actually be paid back in full.
The insurance policy that also insures Thomas Cook for these cases has set a limit of EUR 130.000.000 in the event of bankruptcy.
An amount that at first sight is a gigantic sum, if there were not so many creditors with this huge company.
I hope that you will really get back the sum already paid in full, but fear, given the huge number of people who are in the same boat, that despite the often promised guarantee, it will clearly decrease per capita.
It is best that you have any correspondence handled by a lawyer, otherwise it could happen that they postpone your claim, so that you may miss it completely.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and hope it turns out differently.
Gr. John.
Aaahhh! How wonderful, that irony of Lung Jan. That such a thing is possible on this beloved blog!
I fully agree with him.
Because I must confess that Thailand blog gave me the insight twelve years ago that I could experience Thailand very differently than was possible through all-in packages. Traveling alone offers unexpected opportunities and adventures. If you are not afraid of unforeseen circumstances and setbacks that is.
But my rule of thumb has always been: take the broke with the bump. Sometimes you get put in the sack - but you get so much real in return.
In fact, all those Cooks, Tui's and so on are for people who should have continued to go to Scheveningen and Blankenberge, instead of being tempted by travel agency dream salesmen to spend two weeks in exotic places through a heavy ecological footprint. And for people who need to be able to complain about 'what's not right' anytime, anywhere.
An ex-colleague of mine visited Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand via Kras last year. Nothing to say about the organization. But when I asked him where Halong Bay and Angkor Wat were, he couldn't answer me… Where has he really been, I thought. And the account of his adventure was only a repetition of what the guide had told. The guide had then told that it rained a lot in Hanoi, for example, but they were lucky that there was a radiant sun. Oh, oh!
Of course you can now say: Yes, but I don't need to know that Keukenhof is in the Netherlands when I visit Europe. But I do not support such statements. Because Keukenhof would not be possible in France, for example. It has that typical uniqueness of Dutch culture and vision on life. And their cultivation of the tulip. That is tasting authenticity.
Travel agencies largely have themselves to blame for the difficulty they have in staying afloat.
I'm going to China in 2 weeks. And took me to book through a travel agency.
I have emailed 2. I got a quote with transfers and hotels only. At one this cost 2500 euros and at the other 3000.
Then I went to ask how they arrived at this amount. That answer was very complicated, I didn't understand it and I told them "toedeledokie, I'll take care of it myself".
So now I'm going for 1000 Euro. I also only arranged transfers and hotels. Same thing the travel agents did.
Long live internet.