UK Ferry Tickets

As always, your comments and suggestions were gratefully received. Chris Wells and Martine Jennings both wrote to me about the ease of buying holidays over the Internet, while Jilly Eames said one of her friends, who works at Tesco, is convinced the supermarket giant will soon start selling packages.

I was recently at a travel industry debate on so-called DIY holidays, where people buy different parts of their holiday over the Internet. There’s no doubt that this is on the increase although, interestingly, people are generally still travelling for seven or 14 nights when taking their main holidays and are visiting the usual destinations, like France and Spain.

My belief is that although people will increasingly book holidays on the Internet, they will do it through companies that they trust. If someone gets good value for money with a firm that they can rely on, there is little incentive to shop around.

Tesco is a phenomenal success story, taking £1 in every £8 spent by Britons. There are plenty of rumours that the supermarket will enter the travel industry, but it hasn’t done so far because it is busy making money elsewhere.

The holiday market is extremely competitive, margins are thin and, contrary to popular opinion, it is not easy to make a bucket load of money selling holidays. Believe me, the mark up on cornflakes and baked beans is a lot higher. Expect to see Tesco hotels before long, but will it really make any difference? It’s not as if we haven’t got enough choice already.

Meanwhile, Carole Tardin forwarded me a funny email from a supposed diplomat in Nigeria who wished to send her $13 million. As if! There surely can’t be many people who haven’t received emails from people saying they want to give them money for some convoluted reason or other. I’ve received several from ‘high-ranking businessmen in Sierra Leone’.

Of course, this is a scam but, sadly, many people have been caught out. If you haven’t heard about it, it goes something like this: You get an email from someone who claims to be in dire trouble and wants to deposit a huge sum of money in your bank account. For seemingly very little effort, you’ll receive a generous cut. If you give them any encouragement, they’ll try to hook you in with a series of convincing emails and, when you hand over your bank details to receive the deposit, they will, if possible, empty your account of any money. Failing that, they will ask you to send several hundred pounds or dollars, to cover administration fees. If you do so, you’ll never hear from them again.

It is quite unbelievable that a complete stranger has picked you out to receive a huge cash windfall. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it always is!

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Sunday, July 31st, 2005