Blog homeIf I suggested to you that a reputable travel industry publication (UK based) wants you to inform on your clients - in particular your celebrity clients - I don’t think anyone would believe it.
But today I have come across an astounding website that does just that.
TravelWeekly, a UK travel industry trade magazine owned by Reed Business Information, have launched a new website called Celebs on Holiday.
This website is designed to “sniff out the vacation spots of celebrities”.
TravelWeekly is mainly read by UK based travel agents…. and now, should you be so lucky to have a “celebrity” book with you - in return for snitching on their confidential holiday details and preferably submitting a photo - Travel Weekly will reward you with a bottle of champagne.
We at Travel Weekly just love to know who is holidaying where (and with whom!). Thankfully we have a lot of friends in the travel industry so nothing escapes us…..There’s a bottle of champagne for every one we publish.
A screenshot….
What is wrong with this?
Firstly this is a gross invasion of privacy. Holidays are holidays for a reason - regardless of whether the person taking a holiday is a celebrity or not. However, some celebrities are happy enough to be snapped doing anything - so this perhaps is OK. I am not sure it is.
However my main concern is that TravelWeekly is a respected travel industry brand. They should be setting a good example for travel agents to follow. What TravelWeekly have done is basically said to travel agents - don’t worry about your clients’ data confidentiality - just send us their details. This is a dreadful example to set and TravelWeekly shouldn’t be touching this with a bargepole.
But the agents are not necessarily informing on bookings made via them
I guess TravelWeekly will say that agents are just informing on who they see on a holiday - not those celebrities that have booked via them.
This sentence though:
“Thankfully we have a lot of friends in the travel industry so nothing escapes us”
would clearly contradict that…. if the websites intention was to get information from consumers (not agents) it would not have been written this way. Besides, TravelWeekly is written for travel agents - not for consumers….
What next? A nursing magazine creating a blog listing photos of celebrities that medical staff have seen at a hospital? Not sure the argument that “I wasn’t treating him / her - so they were not one of my patients” would be a very strong defence.
So - have I got this right - or is this all just a bit of fun? Please comment below.
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Fun? What’s that?
Of course it’s fun. Celebrities also help sell destinations so where they go matters to travel agents.
And many agents are actually interested in celebrities. So knowing this, we at Travel Weekly decided it would be good to launch a celebrity-related blog. The good news is it is doing really well.
Interestingly, our traffic mostly comes from consumers not our core agent community. We suspected this would be the case which is why we branded it differently to Travel Weekly in order to attract a wider audience.
When we ask agents to send in celebrity spots we are talking about those agents - or reps - who are in resort who spot celebrities. We are NOT asking them to break customer confidentiality and so far the celebs that have been spotted have been spotted in resort.
We are looking to refresh the site soon so we will need to look at that wording, so thanks for pointing that out, Alex.
Martin
This isn’t fun. No no no. Its red top tittle tattle.
So you have the largest travel industry trade press organisation in the UK using their power to try to get all resort reps to team up and send in photos of celebrities on holiday. Can’t you think of a way to use your trade influence in a more positive way?
I remember once being in the position where 80% of people recognised me where I went….. and sometimes it was not too enjoyable an experience…. for example drunks coming up and being difficult, journalists coming to my door asking questions late at night, everyone staring at me when I entered a room etc…. come on - these guys need their holidays and their break from their everyday routine…. give them a bit of privacy.
I accept that this kind of website is going to exist - but it shouldn’t be the travel industry trade press co-ordinating and rewarding it. Frankly, I think the site should be pulled down. It has the risk of seriously tarnishing the Travel Weekly brand.
Sadly, in this day and age celebrities = traffic. It reminds me of all the Youtube pryamid shemes that have the title “Britney Naked”. They get a people through the door but at what cost to brand integrity?
Well, Travel Weekly have written about Britney at least 10 times….. the prosecution rests its case!
Hi Alex, just to let you know that on reflection and following your comments, we won’t be taking down Celebs on Holiday because it is hugely popular. However, it is NOT clear that we’re NOT asking agents to snitch on their celebrity clients. The Champagne prize and bit about us having “a lot of friends in the travel industry” adds to the misperception that we’re encouraging snitching. So we’re removing the prize and bringing clarity to how this thing works - if you spot a celeb then send the pic through to us. End of story. And by the way, this IS a bit of fun and we DO use our trade influence positively week after week. We also listen to what our readers and users want, and deliver accordingly. Note that we’ve listened to you, taken judgements and made some changes to straighten things out. Thanks for bringing all this to our attention.
Hi Penny
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment and for taking my thoughts into consideration as you tweaked your site.
Yes I know that TW does use the TW trade influence positively. I am a paying subscriber too!
Thanks. Alex
I agree 100% about customer confidentiality, their policy is utterly ridiculous and should be altered. Quality article.
I think it will beneficial for the people. Why not to let the ordinary people know where celebrities are staying. They usually pick the best hotels and venues so anybody can follow their footsteps and enjoy quality service and etc. Those hotels and places will get more recgnition for their hard marketing and quality service.