Press Releases

Medway Travel Management Celebrates 15 Years in Business

Maidstone, Kent (1 May 2008) – Medway Travel Ltd celebrated the 15th anniversary of its opening last month.

The company started as a franchisee of a North American company. Three years later, it became completely independent and has continued as such ever since.

In the last ten years it has added luxury leisure travel and Groups & Events to its original corporate travel business, and now employs 16 staff in its Maidstone office.

Paul Julius, the owner and founder, said “We at Medway Travel pride ourselves on the high service levels we consistently offer. We provide all travel-related services, from hotels, flights, city breaks, Eurostar travel, complex business itineraries, groups & incentive bookings through to all-inclusive luxury holiday packages. We even help with passport and visa applications, travel insurance, airport parking and any other ancilliary services a traveller may require.”

The company is a member of two consortia with Paul being chairman of one for over 12 years and on the management board of the other. This he says has been a major help in enabling the company to remain in the forefront of the industry’s use of the best technology, as well as giving it access to one of the country’s two largest programmes of contracted airfares. He explains that this is how Medway Travel has remained competitive, despite the significant changes that have taken place in the travel marketplace during the last decade. These include, of course, the advent of the Internet, with travellers being encouraged by the travel providers to by-pass travel management companies and agents.

He added, “Fortunately, many of our corporate clients continue to value the contribution which our experienced Travel Consultants, with the best technology at their fingertips, can make to their overall travel costs and management control. Our client base now includes some 200 companies located throughout the UK, and we have just been selected to serve a central London company spending some £1million pa on travel – which gave us a timely additional reason to celebrate!”

He is determined to continue to pursue his policy of providing a friendly and attentive service together with professional excellence, for many years to come, in the belief that there will always be clients who appreciate the valuable support and excellent advice given by his exceptionally dedicated team.
For further details visit– www.medwaytravel.co.uk - or call 01622 750058.

Contact Information:
Paul Julius, Managing Director

The following suggestions will provide a safer trip for travellers:

Air Travel

· Plan to arrive at the airport at least one hour before domestic flights and two hours before international flights.  To avoid having to stand in line, ask the travel consultant to include boarding passes with your ticket whenever possible.
· Do not leave luggage unattended or with someone you do not know.
· Never agree to carry anything on board or in your luggage for someone else.
· Put your name and company address on your luggage.  For added security, use tags that conceal your name and address.
· Remove all old destination tags to avoid misdirection by baggage handlers.
· Carry all medication, important business papers, some toiletries and a change of clothing in carry-on luggage in case the checked luggage is misplaced.

Upon Arrival at your Destination

· Leave the airport as soon as possible after deplaning.  Disturbances are more likely to occur in the airport’s public areas.
· Beware of people claiming to be cab drivers in unmarked cars.  Use licensed taxi or limousine services only.
· If renting a car, get maps in advance or from the rental car counter and clearly write out the directions from the airport to the hotel.  Stop to ask for directions only in well-lit public areas.  Keep the phone number of your destination with you.
· If unfamiliar with the local language, carry a card or matchbook with the hotel’s name and address.  This can be shown to a cab driver or police officer should you become lost.
· In developing countries, try to reserve rooms on the 3rd through the 6th floor of the hotel.  Disturbances and burglaries are most likely to affect ground and 2nd story levels.  In some countries, fire rescue equipment does not reach above the sixth floor.
· Do not leave a sign on the hotel room door for maid service as it announces an empty room for would-be thieves.
· Be sure to carry your credit/charge card company’s telephone number in case the card is lost or stolen.  Always report losses immediately.
· Use the Hotel’s safe. Avoid leaving anything of value such as jewelry, traveller’s cheques, credit cards, cash or documents (i.e., passports) in your room.  If your room has a safe, make sure it is securely bolted down and the bolts are not visible on the outside. 

When staying at a hotel:

· Check fire exits.  Find the two nearest exits to your room and count the doorways so you can feel your way in the dark and smoke.
· Place your key on the night stand and your shoes by the bed so you can find them easily.

In case of fire or smoke:

· Put on your shoes, grab your room key and head for the door.  If there’s any smoke in your room, get on your hands and knees and crawl.  The fresh air you need to survive is near the floor.
· Feel the door and the knob.  If they are cool open the door and check the hall. If they are hot, do not open the door.  Stay in your room and fight the fire.
· If the hallway is clear, close the door behind you and walk to the nearest exit. Never take an elevator in case of fire!  Keep your room key with you in case the hallway becomes blocked and you need to return to your room.
· If the hall has smoke in it, close the door and crawl to the nearest exit.  Stay against the wall so that you can count the doorways.
· When walking down the stairwell, hold the handrail to keep your balance.

If you must stay in your room to fight the fire:

· Open your window to vent smoke.  If your window doesn’t open, do not break it unless absolutely necessary.  You may have to close it later if smoke is outside.  Never jump from the third floor or above, chances are high that you will not survive the fall.
· Call the desk to tell them you are in your room.  Hang a sheet out the window to signal firemen.
· Fill the tub with water and turn on the bathroom vent fan.
· Wet some sheets or towels and stuff cracks of your door to keep out smoke.  Use your ice bucket to bail water on the door.  If the walls are hot, bail water on them.  Keep everything wet.
· If there is a fire outside, get everything combustible away from the window.
· A wet towel tied around your nose and mouth is an effective filter if you fold it in a triangle and put the bottom corner in your mouth.
· Don’t panic!  Keep fighting the fire until rescue arrives.
 

Baggage Safety Tips

Measures that can be taken to minimize baggage losses include:

· Always carry valuables (e.g., jewelry, laptop computers, cameras, etc.) into the cabin with you.
· Always carry important and/or confidential documents in your cabin bags.
· Clearly tag luggage with name, address and phone number.
· Retain baggage claim receipts for checked-in luggage.

Follow these procedures if your bags are lost en route:

· Obtain a lost luggage report form from an airline representative in the baggage claim area.
· Itemize the contents of your bag, including receipts wherever possible.
· Include a copy of your airline ticket and baggage claim stubs.
· Keep a copy of the report, airline ticket and claim stubs.

Travelling with Laptop Computers

Before travelling with a laptop computer, international travellers should note the following:
· Bring a letter stating that the computer is the property of your company and is to be used for Company business purposes.
· If the computer is personally owned, proof of purchase is recommended.
· Declare your computer with U.S. Customs prior to leaving the U.S., and retain your Declaration for future trips abroad.
· Some countries require a Notarised Consularised Letter on entry.
· A refundable deposit may be requested on entry into some countries.
· Computers are prohibited in some countries.
When travelling with a laptop, keep your eyes on the conveyor belt as you move through the metal detectors at airports (there have been reported thefts of laptops at airports around the world). 
If in doubt about any of these issues, ask the travel consultant at the time of booking or check with local contacts prior to traveling.

Foreign Currency Tips

Before returning from a trip abroad, international travellers should note the following advice on foreign currency conversion:
Change unused local currency back to your home currency before departing the foreign country. The conversion rate is usually better abroad.
Try to spend all coins before leaving.  Once out of the country, coins are difficult to change.  Note that in certain countries, such as Russia, travellers must turn in all local currency before departing.

MedwayTravel's "Safer Travel" Package of services

Please click here to see how we can reduce the chances of your experiencing personal security problems when travelling abroad.

A Kent Travel Agent to rely on                          

Medway Travel was set up in Maidstone in 1993 and has established itself as one of the most reputable travel agencies in the county. It serves over 200 corporate clients nationwide, including some well known Kent based organisations such as The National Maritime Museum and the Kent Reliance Building Society.

It also specialises in Groups and Events (using extensively some of the wonderful and historic venues in Kent amongst its worldwide selection of preferred locations) and tailor-made holidays for those who are not happy with “bog standard” packages.

Cruises

“Some of the most popular holidays which clients are currently sampling, are cruises based out of Dover” Stephen Cresswell told us. “These offer a wide selection of cruise holidays from a few days to several weeks, including Scandinavian, Mediterranean or Caribbean tours, with a range of choices, from family cruises, through to cultural or scenic options”.  Stephen should know, as he is the Leisure, Groups & Events Manager at Medway Travel, and is a PSARA accredited cruise specialist, having access to thousands of cruise holidays, worldwide.

Weddings and Honeymoons

If you're looking for the ultimate wedding experience, Medway Leisure Travel’s team have made a real speciality of this, and are advising and making arrangements for clients from all over the country, for destinations both in the UK and overseas.

So, whether you are planning a wedding in Kent, elsewhere in the UK or abroad, the specialist consultants at Medway Travel will be delighted to advise, help you with selecting just the right venue and take the stress off your shoulders at what is of course a particularly busy time, by negotiating with the chosen venue and making all the logistical arrangements.

Medway Leisure Travel’s consultants have access to a huge number of venues in the UK – both conventional and unusual – and the creativity to arrange themed surroundings and parties, if that’s your style.

As travel is also their business, your travel arrangements (and those for your guests) will be handled and co-ordinated by experts, at exceptionally good rates.

For overseas weddings, they also take care of paperwork, ensuring your marriage is fully recognised in UK law.

What better way to celebrate this most important occasion, than in one of the world’s most romantic destinations?  With their fantastic choice of exotic and special venues from all over the world, Medway Leisure Travel can help you make your dream wedding and honeymoon, become a reality!

                    

For further information call 01622 608 265 or email Leisure@medwaytravel.co.uk

Organising Events

As with complex travel itineraries, arranging and booking an event is often far from straight forward, given the variables involved. Meetings have too many components for them all to be organised "on line", and there are currently no venues or suppliers with the technology to enable this to be done successfully. Understandably, companies want to control their spend in this area and are trying to apply the lessons learned over the past few years in the purchasing of travel and accommodation.

The trend is now to use specialists, who will help the booker to gain control of their expenditure. It is still secretaries who are primarily involved in doing the buying, and booking via a specialist agency will often save time and hassle, freeing the event organiser to focus on other issues. The specialist agencies do not normally charge their clients for this service, their fees coming from the hotel, venue or other supplier. The specialist will be able to earn preferential rates through volume leverage and will guide the client to take advantage of optimum booking arrangements (eg. delegate rates, or separate room hire charges). They will also insure that all items required are included in the event budget prior to the conference, rather than there being last minute requests which are likely to cost a great deal more.

Bill-back services are usually included, with the agent checking all details, and presented in a way which will make the following year's budgeting much simpler.

As companies try to involve their staff in taking responsibility for their expense budgets, there is a trend away from 24 hour delegate rates towards delegates being required to budget and pay for their own hotel accommodation.

To get the best from your event specialist agent, the following guide-lines should be observed:

• Be realistic with time scales
• Agree a budget and stick to it
• State clearly the objectives of your meeting
• Ensure that time devoted to each part of the event is in proportion to its importance
• Select the venue with care, using an experienced agent
• Read the small print on the venue contract and be clear about booking terms and cancellation policies

You need to have an open and trusting relationship to get the best support, and if you feel this is not possible, the chances are you have the wrong agent - get one you can trust!

Medway Travel gains recognition for Cruise Expertise

To cap its success in receiving the coveted ABTA Gold accolade, Medway Travel is now proud to be a member of the prestigious PSARA Group, with our Leisure and Groups Manager, Stephen Cresswell, having become an Accredited Cruise Agent.

PSARA is the training and education body of the UK Cruise industry supported by 24 of the world's leading cruise lines, and PSARA Agents are trained in selling cruising and matching the right customer to the right ship. The Accreditation Scheme is for agents such as Medway Travel, wanting to be cruise experts offering unbiased advice on choosing a cruise holiday. This involves extensive cruise product training, ship inspections and cruises and distance learning programme to ensure they are experts in their field. You can therefore be confident when you ask Stephen for advice, that he will carefully and expertly match his recommendations to your requirements.

Whilst most of us have used No Frills airlines to go to conferences on the Continent and meetings up North, we never-the-less have some sympathy for the point of view expressed recently by Medway Travel Management’s owner, Paul Julius. He believes that using budget airlines is not necessarily cheaper or the most suitable choice, and offers quite inadequate flexibility.

Paul said: "We always hear they are cheaper but I question that argument. Low fares appear on the screen, but often are only available for a split second, because the original inventory may only be two or three seats on a desired flight. I would also question whether it really is any cheaper when it takes you ages to scan the Internet and search for the alternatives? Are you paid to do that or something more useful?"

He added that of course, no frills carriers had a "dramatic effect" when they first burst on to the market but that effect was now "diminishing" as conventional airlines have restructured their own fares to compete.

"BA is frequently cheaper on many short haul routes," Paul points out. "Even if you do save £35 on the flight, once you have suffered the extended transfer journey to the no frills airport (airports with lower landing charges are by definition less convenient) and paid for a bite to eat and for taking luggage with you, has it really worked out any cheaper? And what happens when a low cost carrier "goes tech" at 11.30pm? Frankly I don't know and neither, I believe, does the airline. You may get to Stansted at 2.30am, there's no car to take you home, no secretary to pick up the pieces, no 24-hour call centre and no redress!"

Low fares are "extremely restricted", offering no flexibility should business plans change - as they frequently do. A lot of business travellers change their plans, and if you buy a low cost carrier ticket, then you're stuck with it. If you want to arrive in good shape to do business, convenience, comfort  and minimum travel stress are also important elements in the equation, along with cost. So Paul advises using a profession business travel management company to do the research and make the appropriate arrangements for you.

Medway Travel Management may be contacted on 01622 608258 or on res@medwaytravel.co.uk

 

 

Low fares are "extremely restricted", offering no flexibility should business plans change - as they frequently do. A lot of business travellers change their plans, and if you buy a low cost carrier ticket, then you're stuck with it. Paul comments that he often gets enquiries through his web site (www.medwaytravel.co.uk) from potential customers looking for budget flights and his staff always have the same response each time:  if you want to arrive in good shape to do business, convenience, comfort  and minimum travel stress then it's important to consider alternatives to the budget airlines.  As Paul's clients will testify, for the sake of a few pounds difference, using a professional travel management company to help you steer clear of the budget airlines can make a substantially positive difference to your travel experience. 

 

Medway Travel Ltd of Maidstone – established in 1993 – continues to be granted the coveted “Gold”  Training Award from the Association of British Travel Agents for its palpable commitment to staff training.

Paul Julius, the owner of Medway Travel, said “We are thrilled to continue to hold this award, which we were first granted in 2003. Out of some 6,500 member agencies of ABTA, there are currently only 20 agencies throughout the UK which have been recognised in this way.  Our staff are all of exceptionally high calibre and we take ongoing training in travel products, the use of the latest technology and in customer service, very seriously.”

Against a background of tough market conditions in the leisure travel sector, the company’s Medway Leisure Travel division is enjoying significantly increased sales.  Some of this results from business coming through its informative website. The public is also welcome to register for its free monthly leisure e-news letter.

To cap its success in receiving this ABTA accolade, Medway Travel has just been accredited with PSARA, the prestigious cruise association.  This follows Stephen Cresswell – the agency’s leisure manager - completing an intensive training course to become an accredited cruise specialist.

 

Quality Survey

Every 6 months we carry out a survey to find out how our clients regard our service. We have always found their replies really helpful in guiding our decisions, as we strive to make our service ever more valuable to all our clients.

In the survey held last month, some 200 questionnaires were sent out to the staff we work with amongst our corporate clients, and yet again, the responders were most generous with their marking and comments, for we which we are all most appreciative. The detail is summarised below:

On the eleven basic features of our service, we were appraised at an average across all responders at 9.16 out of 10 (for which we gave the guidance 1= v. poor, 5 = acceptable and 10 = excellent) - i.e. 91.6% of maximum possible score. Included in this average were three elements of a subjective nature, regarding our being "fair and honest in our dealings with clients", "using our initiative on clients' behalf", and our being "genuinely keen to give the best possible service". For these three we were marked at 92.3% of maximum possible score.

Last year, over a slightly longer list of features, we achieved 92.8%, so we believe this consistency tends to confirm the reliability of the results.

Other questions threw up the fact that 90% of the responders had used our Virtually There on-line personal itinerary information facility and found it really useful.

65% of responders found our website useful, but disappointingly only some 50% had checked out its Leisure section - perhaps the others work for bosses who breathe down their necks! However those 70% of responders who have used our leisure services, appraised their quality at 89% of maximum possible score.

A number of responders volunteered appreciative comments, which boosted the team's determination to keep up the good work. The following are typical:

• "I think the reply time is fantastic, this allows me just to get on with things" L.A. from a medium sized local client.
  
• "Really happy with Medway Travel, pricing is always good & there is a genuine desire to help. Also, if ever there is a mistake, staff do everything they can to sort it out". V.B. from a major Central London client.
  
• "Dealing with Medway Travel is always a pleasure & never a chore"
  D.M. from a large client in the Midlands

I am delighted to announce that Christina Ford of W K Webster in Sidcup, is the winner of the respondents' prize draw. The prize is a £25 voucher for items in the Checklist program of travel accessories, or towards a holiday booked with our Leisure department. Congratulations Christina!

Employing smokers costs UK employers £4bn per year

A study has shown that in Scotland alone, the cost to businesses of smoking-related absenteeism is in excess of £40 million per year, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. A plausible pattern of up to nine 'cigarette breaks' per working day, each lasting 10 minutes, equated to the loss of one working day per week. The study concluded that the cost of lost productivity was costing Scottish employers £1.2 million per day, or £292 million per year.

A London-based employer has tried to overcome the problem by insisting that smokers 'clock off' each time they go out for a cigarette; it was hoped that this would go some way to overcoming the perceived inequalities felt by non-smokers. The non-smoking employees felt that they were working longer hours for the same pay, being expected to cover for smokers during their cigarette breaks, and this has been the cause of growing friction in many work places for some time.

There are, of course, many other costs related to employing smokers, including the cost of increased life insurance, maintaining smoking areas, smoking-related deaths and the damage to property. This is followed by the costs of additional cleaning and redecoration, special ventilation requirements and the provision of special facilities for either smokers or non-smokers, effectively resulting in higher property costs.

On a more positive note, the study also showed how smoking cessation interventions in the workplace can yield positive cost savings for employers, resulting in rapid gains in both productivity and workplace attendance, outweighing the cost of any smoking cessation programme.

Medway Travel Ltd (01622 608265) www.medwaytravel.co.uk) recently signed an exclusive contract with a Marbella-based stop smoking specialist Elite Clinics ( www.eliteclinics.com ). They are handling all the travel arrangements, including flights, transfers, accommodation and the clinic appointments for the growing number of UK-based clients travelling to Spain to undergo stop smoking treatment.

The aptly named "Triple Therapy" treatment offered by Elite has been found to be more successful when used on smokers who travelled to Spain from the UK. Maybe not surprisingly, it was discovered that smokers, when abroad in a warm and relaxing environment, without the normal stresses of work, found becoming an ex-smoker a surprisingly easy experience. The British-run clinic now has a dedicated team, working with UK-based clients.

A total smoking ban in all UK workplaces would save nearly £4 billion a year - and it would also save tens of thousands of lives.
The economics for the individual are enormous. A long-term 30-a-day smoker spends some £50 per week on the habit. This is £2500 of net of tax income. Projected over an expected smoking-life of say 50 years, the net of tax cost is an amazing £125,000, to say nothing of the poorer health the average smoker suffers. If such a person gives up, it will be like a salary increase of over £3000 per year for a standard rate income tax payer or £4000 for a higher rate payer - worth a determined effort, surely?

Do frequent flyers suffer health risks?
Worried about the health risks of flying?

Medway Travel can reassure you the picture is not as bad as you might think.

It is sometimes thought that flying frequently must be bad for one's health.

All sorts of allegations are made by the armchair pessimists that solar radiation and the quality of air / shortage of oxygen must be bad for you. However, large sums of money have been spent over many years to investigate whether there are any dangers, and the answer is very reassuring.

Analysis of large numbers or air crew suggest, that those making their living by flying (and they spend much longer in the air than the most dedicated frequent flier!) are, if anything, healthier than the average member of the public.

British Airways works closely with the UK Government, Civil Aviation Authority and the National Radiological Protection Board and has monitored cosmic radiation on board its aircraft for more than 20 years. Monitoring instruments were permanently installed on Concorde and regular measurements are also made on long range Boeing 747-400 aircraft. In addition, British Airways has undertaken epidemiological studies examining the incidence of disease and life expectancy of flight crew over the last 40 years.

It has been found that pilots and flight engineers have an increased life expectancy of between 3 and 5 years compared with the general population. Death rates from heart disease and all cancers combined are considerably less in flight crew then for the population of England and Wales as a whole and, although rare, death from melanoma (which is associated with exposure to sunlight) was the only cause of cancer in excess of the general average. Cancer such as leukaemia, which may be linked to radiation exposure, was lower than for the general population.

It is not yet clear to what extent the fact that aircrew are expected to live a healthier lifestyle in other respects, affects the outcome. For example, they can hardly "step outside" for an hourly smoke on a long-haul flight as many office workers can! They have to restrict their alcohol intake for quite significant periods, and the flight deck crew have regular quite demanding health checks, so they have to take regular exercise and eat sensibly.

Further research and larger studies, to which British Airways is contributing, are continuing and will bring about even more detailed analysis and information will be available in due course.

Medway Travel is appointed Spanish Clinic's exclusive UK partner

A total smoking ban in all UK workplaces would save the economy nearly £4 billion a year; it was recently confirmed. It would also save tens of thousands of lives.

Very little can be written about the perils of smoking that is not now common knowledge, but kicking the habit is not easy. The use of NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy), in the form of patches or gum, whilst popular, only has a success rate of 9%*. There has been bad experience with Zyban, as a number of users in the USA suffered seizures and the "cold turkey" method has a low long-term success rate. Hypnosis, with its ability to change people's habits, has long been regarded as a safe, non-evasive method, with a reasonably high success rate.

However, a British-run clinic based in Southern Spain has dramatically increased the long-term success rate for people wishing to become permanent ex-smokers by combining NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), a sprinkling of psychology, and hypnotherapy.

We at Medway Travel are proud to have been selected by the Clinic, and Paul Julius has recently signed an exclusive agreement with Elite Clinics to handle the travel arrangements, including flights, transfers, accommodation and the clinic appointments, for all its many UK based clients. Our team personally liaises between clients and the clinic to ensure the optimum balance is achieved between one-to-one session availability, travel cost and clients' convenience.

Having a first-hand knowledge of the clinic, we are well placed to ensure clients have a smooth, trouble-free visit, and keep within their travel budget. Whilst some clients travel alone, others bring along their partner or family and incorporate a family holiday into the visit. This is an area where Medway Travel is, of course, particularly proficient.

Elite Clinics have found that their location on the Costa del Sol has enhanced the success rate of their aptly named "Triple Therapy" treatment. The warm and relaxing environment, makes becoming an ex-smoker a surprisingly easy experience.
The treatment, involves two sessions at the Clinic: the first, which lasts approximately two hours, is designed to stop the client smoking, and the second, one or two days later, lasts just one hour and converts the new ex-smoker into a long-term non-smoker.

For more details, please see further information on our web site.

You can also contact Medway Travel on 01622 750058 or Elite Clinics directly on: 0034 951 31 15 91 or via their web site, www.eliteclinics.com

(* Information taken from New Scientist magazine)

Medway Travel welcomes Travel Shop UK clients

Medway Leisure Travel is pleased to announce it has successfully taken over the business of Manchester based company Travel Shop UK Ltd., and has incorporated it into its own Leisure division.
Travel Shop UK was a company that, for the last 20 years, has provided clients all over the Britain with a personal and very conscientious bespoke leisure travel service.

On completion of the deal, Diane Horne, the owner, said "I am sad at having been advised to retire early, on medical grounds. However, I am happy that I have been able to find and sell my business to Medway Travel, whose views on client service so closely match my own. I know that my clients, many of whom have been with me for years and years and have become firm friends, will be in good hands".

Medway Travel's managing director, Paul Julius is also clearly pleased with the acquisition. "It provides us with useful additional business and, our consultants, together with the large team of highly specialist tour operators we work with, will be able to build on the standards of service which Travel shop UK clients have been used to receiving from Diane and her team, in the past", he stated.

Medway Leisure Travel is the leisure travel division of Medway Travel Ltd, whose other division is Medway Travel Management, serving some 250 corporate clients throughout the UK. See www.medwaytravel.co.uk for further details.

Quality Survey

Medway Travel undertakes to carry out a client survey every year, asking travel bookers and travellers to mark some 15 aspects of its service out of ten.

The company takes the results very seriously, as this is the principal means by which it can gauge whether the effort put in to continued improvements, is having the desired effect.
Detailed analysis of the results, shows yet again, a high level of satisfaction.

The average score over the whole range of these elements and all respondents was 9.31, compared with last years 9.28. It will surely be a cause of envy to many companies to learn that the lowest scoring elements this year were "call back within agreed time scale" and "fares are competitive and good value", both achieving a very creditable average of 8.75 across all respondents. All other elements achieved an average score of over 9.0 each.

Paul Julius, Medway Travels managing director, said "We are always most grateful to those who take the trouble to complete our questionnaire, as they really help us to support all our clients more effectively. I am therefore delighted to announce this year's winner of the prize draw for these helpful contributors as being Gemma Tracey of The European School of Osteopathy. Congratulations!"

"When we dissent out our first survey some 12 years ago, we were somewhat concerned as they do provide anyone with a grouse, a big opportunity to "sound off". I believe these results are therefore something of which the team can be justifiably proud".

Petrine Wilcocks, the Operations Manager pointed out that "earlier this year we went through a major up-date of our technology and a complete rebuild of our internal computing network, which inevitably caused a certain amount of disruption. I can therefore understand that our call back performance suffered a bit as a result. I am confident however that it has already returned to a higher level."

Paul added, "Maintaining the competitiveness of our fares is of course an on-going concern, but I would suggest that no organisation in such a competitive market as travel, with such a plethora of types of provider, could hope to score close to 10 on this particular feature, whilst also providing a comprehensive professional and personal travel management service. However I am encouraged by the fact our investment in technology and the skill of our staff has justified such a comparatively high score, whilst we also fulfil in large measure our clients' expectations in so many other respects."

The team of consultants felt particularly "rewarded" for their efforts by the many appreciative comments added freestyle to the standard reply format. Examples of these were:

"All staff are extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with. They have managed to sort out some extremely difficult requests from our company and have kept me fully informed about every aspect of all travel booked. They go out of their way to help no matter who you deal with and everyone is very knowledgeable and always happy to step in and answer questions about a booking even if they did not deal with the initial enquiry... I cannot praise the staff highly enough for their efficiency and helpful attitude."
Jo Cesary, Invitrogen Kent, Sittingbourne

"I have always been most appreciative of the help and advice given by Medway Travel. On the occasions when additional help has been required, often at short notice, the response has been rapid and much appreciated. I think a great strength of Medway is that I have been able to establish a sound working relationship with 'named' staff. This makes the service more personal."
Peter Turner, British Chess Federation, Battle

The features of the service for which the company was marked at or over 9.5 out of 10 were:

• Staff are knowledgeable
• Travel information is accurate
• Provide proactive support
• Response is friendly and cheerful
• The phone is answered promptly

Janellen Stuart, the Quality Manager at Medway Travel said "Whilst these results are really encouraging and say something for the work we put in on our ISO 9001 systems and staff training, no one in the team is complacent about the need to continue to strive for further improvements, and we will continue to conduct these surveys to help us to ensure we, at the very least, keep pace with clients' increasing expectations".

Quality Survey

In May 2004, Medway Travel ran our annual quality survey and we would like to thank all those who kindly responded to our quality survey this year. We really value customers rating us on the many features of our service we enquire about, and the free style comments that many people made.
These responses have been a valuable source of guidance and of inspiration to us over the years, and have helped us to concentrate our resources and efforts on our less strong areas - it seems to good effect!

In response to our request that we were rated out of 10 against 16 crucial aspects of our service, the overall average mark you all gave us was 9.3 - or 93% of the maximum possible score. This was up from 91.2 % in 2003 and 86% in 2002 - and there is no possibility for any "grade inflation" in these markings!!

What is particularly encouraging in view of the effort the whole team puts in and the investment we have made in systems and equipment to optimise our service, was that all the individual average scores for each aspect, have moved up steadily over the three surveys. So, for example, where an average score of 10 indicates total agreeme9.4nt with the following statements across all responses, these average scores were given:

Statement	2004 score	2003 score	2002 score
The phone is answered promptly	9.4	9.2	8.5
Our response is friendly and cheerful	9.7	9.4	9.0
Our invoices match our fare quote	9.4	9.3	8.5
We call you back within the agreed timescale	9.4	9.2	8.5
We provide proactive support	9.0	9.0	8.6

and our lowest ranked aspect (which is subcontracted) had average scores of:

Statement	2004 score	2003 score	2002 score

Statement 2004 score 2003 score 2002 score
Our Forex & Travellers cheques service is efficient 8.5 8.5 7.9
We believe that the relative consistency of these results lends them real credibility, and confirms the across-the-board trend of steady improvement towards excellence which we are consciously continuing to aim for.
Medway Travel continue to strive for perfection and we have our clients to thank for keeping us aware of our strong points and highlighting areas in which we could achieve more.

 

2003 - A year of continuing achievement for Medway Travel Ltd

Not only did Medway Travel celebrate its 10th anniversary as a Business Travel management company, in 2003 it also achieved a number of important innovations - in spite of a difficult year for the industry!

We added our own "Select" leisure department, especially catering for those who want informed professional advice prior to committing substantial sums on a holiday tailored to their particular wishes.

We introduced several exciting new on-line facilities for corporate clients' benefit:

• orporate Traveller - a flight & fare research tool and booking engine
• iBank - providing clients with their own travel management information with up-to-the-minute details of their travel spend, always immediately available
• EFlightseeker - giving subscribing clients a rapid research facility for all "No-frills" airline schedules and fares, with immediate access to the booking page of the selected airline

We finalized negotiations for special fares from some 30 airlines, providing substantial savings compared with published fares. These are available to all clients, both leisure and corporate, and are displayed for the latter on Corporate Traveller (see above).

You may have noticed, we have completely renewed our website, introducing email newsletters, more useful links, holiday ideas and much more.

Some 30 new Corporate clients moved their accounts to Medway Travel during the year, and we handled the group travel for a number of nationally known companies, along with many repeat groups from organizations we have worked with for years.

Lastly, but perhaps the most important, we have continued to strengthen our team of consultants and sales staff, so that the average experience in the travel industry across the company (even including our accounting staff) now stands at 14.9 years per member - surely enough to give our clients every confidence in the quality of advice and service which is at their disposal!

The hidden cost of the cheaper airlines

AIR TRANSPORT USERS’ COUNCIL. LATEST!!

This air traveller’s watchdog organisation has conducted a survey after receiving dozens of complaints from passengers confused at the large number of “deals” and routes on offer. The survey checked 1500 fares advertised by 8 airlines and concluded: “The difference in fares was often minimal and, on occasion, full service airlines were actually cheaper than their no frills rivals”

The survey suggests that booking a no frills trip may be false economy. Full-service airlines are frequently cheaper and more direct. The cheap no frills deals advertised can deceive the unwary because of their hidden costs. Back-up services are much more reliable from full-service airlines.

Ticket Prices

A comparison of fares for flights on BA and Ryanair between Glasgow and Paris over a thirteen week period showed BA cheaper 4 out of 5 times. Only when the flight was booked at the last minute did Ryanair become cheaper. When BA was cheaper it was by a few pounds only, the maximum being £45. When Ryanair was cheaper (for a next day flight) it was cheaper by £149! This “headline” saving masks the true picture for the traveller who can organise journeys in advance.

Transfer costs – time costs

No frills airports are often many miles from the city centre advertised as the destination. Ryanair’s journey to Frankfurt lands at Hahn, a 75 mile bus journey from the city while BA’s passengers land at Frankfurt Main, a 15 minute train ride from the centre. For a passenger starting in central London and ending in the middle of Frankfurt the return transfer costs were £12 for BA but £39 for Ryanair. The Ryanair flight ticket was cheaper but the difference was all but closed by this “add-on”. The total time for the return journey city centre to city centre was 3 hours and 57 minutes for BA, but 6 hours and 45 minutes for Ryanair despite the Ryanair flight being a few minutes shorter than BA’s. A saving of nearly three hours may well be worth the extra few pounds that a BA trip costs for a busy traveller (total cost inc. transfers £147, BA and £125 Ryanair)

Hidden extras

Some no frills companies make their headline ticket prices appear as cheap as possible by virtue of ignoring (until it is time to pay) airport taxes and other charges, such as a transaction fee for passengers paying with credit cards. The watchdog concluded, “We want airlines to be more transparent in their pricing and quote a fully inclusive price in their advertising”

When things go wrong

Just watch “Airport”. Full-service airlines are much more likely to offer a comprehensive back-up service when flights are delayed or cancelled. BA,and bmi British Midland have signed up to the European Passengers Service Commitment which sets minimum standards including free drinks and meals after delays of two hours. Easyjet and Ryanair have not signed.

All of this information comes as no surprise to Medway Travel Management as we’ve long been aware of the hidden costs in budget airlines and the impact they have on customers. Medway Travel Management have the expertise that ensures that our clients are confident that their booked flights are at negotiated rates but also don’t have the hidden costs highlighted in this article.

 

How to benefit from recent advances in Travel Technology

It is not so long ago that travel agents actively represented the airlines and tried to maximise their own sales – not always to the traveller’s advantage!. Agents used to provide their larger clients with heaps of computer printouts to impress them with the volume of the statistics, rather than the value of the information, and communications were slow and stressful!

Fortunately we have all moved on since then! Better agents now concentrate on finding solutions, providing best value, convenience and actionable information for their clients.

It is worth checking to ensure, at least your agent is using sophisticated technology to:

• Enable you to make contact by whatever means suits you best – whether it is by telephone, fax, email, via the agent’s website or perhaps, in an emergency, through the agent’s Out of Hours service, also using any of these means.
• Research all possible alternative fares and helping the client to select the most appropriate. The full range of scheduled fares, no frills airlines, creative ticketing, net fare deals, consolidators, internet traders and packages all should be considered, if you are to obtain the best compromise between travel cost, your time away from the desk and your condition when you reach your destination!.
• Afford the time for researching your itinerary thoroughly. Clearly, this is only economically viable if the agent is well equipped and has the trained staff to exploit the latest systems. Thus the use of software, bolted on to the Computer Reservation System (CRS), can support consultants in researching alternative city-to-city or routing permutations, and then converting the results into readily understood email or fax quotes at the touch of a button,.
• Enable consultants to program the system to display reminder flags, when any specified combination of data appears on their screen. Thus if a Mr Smith of ABC Widgets dislikes Dodgy Airways, consultants would be actively reminded as soon as they had the temptation to consider offering him such a fare!
• Provide you with the opportunity to research your own alternatives and options via a website booking engine. This should enable you to select the preferred itinerary, book all aspects and electronically forward the details to the agent to check and confirm/ticket.
• Quality check well over 100 features of a booking for compatibility with your electronically held corporate and personal profile (e.g. travel policy and personal preferences), compatibility of the dates and times for each stage of the trip, compliance with airline transfer and ticketing rules etc. This safeguards against many possible – although thankfully rare! – human errors, each potentially capable of making a shambles of your carefully planned and constructed itinerary!
• “Camp” on a wait-list for a required flight, or your preferred seat, so that immediately a relevant cancellation is made by another passenger from anywhere in the world, the computer jumps in and grabs the seat for you.
• Enable you to tap in to your itineraries from anywhere –including your hotel bedroom, to check for any changes to the schedules of your remaining flights.
• Provide authorised staff with access to pre- and post-travel management reports, via the Internet (or on disc or hard copy), for policy monitoring, budget control and planning purposes.These are just some of the advances better agents are now able to offer their clients. The good news is that it does not only apply to the large international agents and their multinational clients!

Medway Travel Management can provide these benefits and facilities to all its 300 corporate clients, whatever the size of their travel budget. Some of the reports and services are however clearly of more practical use to certain sizes of spend and types of company. The agency’s staff will be pleased to advise you on which might be the best in your particular circumstances.

For more information,
call Sales on: 01622 750058
or email: sales@medwaytravel.co.uk

To place a travel enquiry or booking:
call Operations on: 01622 750058
or email: res@medwaytravel.co.uk

Ten Exciting Years!

It is now just 10 years since Paul Julius first set up Medway Travel Ltd – based in Maidstone. He has constantly striven to model the way it serves its clients, on the ideal agency he would have wished to have had, when he was the much traveled Sales and Marketing director of a large UK engineering company.

Paul says “it has been an exciting and enjoyable experience! Exciting, because during this time, we have built up from nothing, a company now handling travel for some 300 corporate clients (our largest, placing annually, some £500,000 worth of travel with us) located mostly in Kent and Sussex and London.

Initially we had one experienced consultant. We now have a team of 15 unusually high calibre travel industry specialists. We opened with the basic systems. Over the years we have progressed to a fully integrated and virtually paperless office with automated invoicing, electronic quality control, fully computerised management accounts and a number of important on-line facilities for clients’ use.

As we have always aimed at the highest possible quality standards, we also saw the importance of ISO 9001/2000 and the Investors in People accreditation, which we obtained with the support of the Medway Chamber – which we joined in 1993 - and Business Link Kent.”

Over the last 6 years, Medway Travel has been faced with massive changes in the travel industry. Average ticket values have dropped by 20% and commission rates fell from some 9% to a mere 4%. The result has been a reduction in income per transaction, from the travel vendors, of a whopping 78%! Paul says “Without our clients’ agreement to transaction fees and our developing a completely new business model, this would have meant the end of a short, traumatic and very costly adventure!!”

What has made it all really enjoyable for him, he says, has been the great rapport he has been privileged to experience with his clients, and the tremendous support given to him by the hard-working staff at Medway Travel, for which he is really appreciative.

“We now plan to continue to develop our Select Leisure and Group Travel departments, whilst still growing the Business Travel Management side of the company, and I look forward to the next 10 challenging years with eager anticipation!”

US to require machine-readable passports

Holders of old-style passports will no longer be able to enter the US on the country's visa waiver programme after 1st October 2003.

The US Department of State has announced that only travellers holding machine-readable passports from the 27 countries in the programme will be able to enter the country without having obtained a visa in advance. The change was originally due to happen in 2007 but has been brought forward by the Patriot Act, enacted after the events of 9/11.

Machine readable passports can be identified by a strip of characters including the passport number, expiry date, sex, name and date of birth in two lines along the bottom of the details page (inside the back cover). These details can be quickly scanned for immediate cross-referencing with immigration databases.

The UK passport service began to introduce machine-readable passports in 1988 and the vast majority of passports in circulation are now machine-readable. However some UK passports issued by consular posts abroad are still not machine-readable.

Medway Travel awarded ABTA GOLD Award

Investing in Staff Reaps Rewards for Medway Travel

Medway Travel has been awarded the ABTA GOLD Training Award - a top travel industry accolade recognising companies who are committed to developing and training their staff.

The Award, which is only open to ABTA members, has been specially designed for the travel industry to raise standards, increase competence of staff and enhance customer service and professionalism in the travel industry's workforce.

The award provides an opportunity for those companies committed to staff training and development to obtain public recognition and thus raise the profile of the company as an employer.

“At the moment, only the elite in the travel industry have achieved this ‘gold’ standard,” said Ian Reynolds Chief Executive of ABTA. “As a customer this award will tell you that you can expect to receive the best quality of service from a company committed to training their staff to the highest level. Additionally, it is the competence of staff and the quality of customer service, which will set companies apart and ensure their survival and success.”

Ends
March 2003

For further information please contact Frances Tuke, Sean Tipton or Keith Betton, ABTA Corporate Affairs Office, tel. 020 7307 1903