Tourism Update recently surveyed its tour operator readership, asking them about the biggest challenges they face in their relationship with suppliers. Tessa Reed reports.

Issues around rates and lengthy response times are the biggest challenges operators face when dealing with suppliers or product owners, according to a recent Tourism Update survey.

Rates was listed as a challenge by 43% of respondents. Chief among the complaints was the move by many suppliers to a best available rates (BAR) system.

Herbie Aucamp, owner of African Flamboyance, says the dynamic or BAR aspect of certain suppliers’ rate structures is very hard to deal with. Chris Chibaduki Product & Contracting Manager at Springbok Atlas Tours & Safaris points out that BAR rates are especially challenging for the traditional markets who produce brochures a year in advance.

Other issues around rates included suppliers undercutting the rates offered to operators. Of those surveyed, only 16% of respondents said this happened frequently, while 49% said its happened sometimes, 33% said rarely and 2% said never. One operator said they had been undercut as much as 25% on rack.

While the issue of suppliers undercutting rack rates isn’t prevalent, it remains a challenge for operators when it does happen. “This does not give us a professional image,” Chibaduki explains, “Clients overseas think we are trying to reap them off.” However, he says it only happens sometimes and the operator has a good relationship with its suppliers.

Availability was also listed as a challenge by a number of operators. Highlighting this issue, Chibaduki points out that most suppliers are already booked up for 2017 and some even for 2018. One operator points out that some suppliers will block out dates, making it impossible for tour operators to find availability, because they prefer selling rooms directly to clients.

In this regard, Mark Stodel, owner of Edge Travel, suggests suppliers need to take a long term view of the operator. “When times are bad they come looking for business. But when things are good they feel they can go it alone and compete against and try and squeeze operators out of the equation,” he says.

Operators also complained about sliding commission scales that are based on the number of bookings an operator places with a  supplier. Smaller operators say this system  makes it impossible to compete with the bigger players.

Slow response times was listed as a challenge by 19% of respondents. Operators explained that a delay in getting a quote from a supplier had a knock on effect on their own service offering and could cost them a client.

Other challenges included product consistency, suppliers that were not flexible and suppliers not providing adequate marketing information.