It comes after the Advertising Standards Authority was forced to investigate Dalton Travel’s claim to be the “only independent” in the town of Dunmow, sparking anger from a rival shop located on the same street. 
 
An advert for Dalton Travel, which is part of the four-branch Colchester Travel, was published in a local paper in January, referring to the store as “Dunmow’s only specialist independent travel agent”.
 
Flitch Travel, which is a member of Hays Travel Independence Group, argued that the claim was misleading, insisting that it too was also a specialist independent agency based in Dunmow.
 
The advertising watchdog agreed the phrase constituted “misleading advertising” and upheld the complaint against Dalton Travel.
 
Following the ruling last week, Colchester Travel’s director Paul Bennett has hit back, accusing Flitch Travel of also featuring adverts in the past which he said contained “unsubstantiated claims”, such as “Great Dunmow’s best rates” in relation to foreign exchange.
 
“There are always two sides to a story, and this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black,” Bennett said.
 
“I’d rather spend my time getting on with the business of selling holidays.”
 
Flitch Travel owner Neil Henderson told TTG he was simply focused on “protecting the fact that we are independent”. “We are not interested in playing games,” he added.
 
In its response to the ASA, Colchester Travel argued that it was family-owned “with total autonomy over its own decision-making”, which it believed met the definition of “free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority”.
 
The ASA ruling read: “By contrast, they [Colchester Travel] stated that Flitch Travel was a trading division of Hays Travel.
 
“They understood that Flitch Travel’s membership of Abta, Atol and Iata was held in the name of Hays Travel and that liability under these bodies rested with Hays Travel.
 
“They noted that the complainant’s website stated ‘Flitch Travel sells travel services on behalf of Hays Travel’ and that it could also be argued that the complainant was not a travel agent, but a management company working for Hays Travel.”
 
In its findings, the ASA acknowledged that there was no established definition of “independent” within the travel industry. But it said it understood the term was commonly used by agents to refer to a lack of ties to a major operator.
 
The report continued: “We considered that the average consumer was likely to understand the term ‘independent travel agent’ in the context of the wider travel industry, including the large tour operators.”
 
The watchdog also highlighted Flitch Travel’s Aito Specialist Agent status, of which a requirement is that it be independent.
 
The ASA ruled the advert must not appear again in the form complained about and told Colchester Travel to ensure “they hold sufficient evidence to substantiate their marketing claims”.