The president of the US travel agency enters the easyCruise debate and distances himself from his employee

posted: 25.03.04

Over the last few days we have been publishing some heated emails on the subject of easyCruise and its potential relationship with travel agents. As reported by Lloyds List yesterday, when he addressed the Seatrade conference in Miami on March 16 Stelios said that in order to bring easyCruise to the US market 'some sort of liason with travel agents "might not be a bad idea."

Nevertheless, this did not prevent the angry US travel agent's letter published at easy.com on March 18:

"Mr. Stelios is obviously blinded to the strength of the travel agency community here in the USA. If he thinks that he is going to walk in here and by pass the whole system and offer his cheap cruises with success, he has another think coming. We in the agency community are able to qualify potential passengers and make passenger/ cruise line matches. Perhaps instead of addressing bored students at Harvard he should spend some time getting the feel of the American travel agency system.

He may be in for a surprise... hopefully he has deep pockets to finance the fight.

If he wants our help, then he can ask. If he doesn't, the battle may be long and nasty."

Jay Caulk, at our service
Peter Berlin's Travel Center

posted: 18.03.04

As a result, a competition lawyer entered the debate and now an individual who uses the easy.com free email service. This individual was not known to the easyGroup before his correspondence on this matter began:

I have read the contents of the email that your colleague, Jay Caulk, sent to easyCruise recently, following the address given by Stelios last Tuesday at the Seatrade maritime conference in Miami.

The easyGroup of companies has actually done a lot for the consumer, and you will note I am also using their email service.

Exactly why it is that Jay had to send such an aggressive email I am not sure, but I must severely reprimand the stance that your organization takes against Stelios. Why are you so frightened of an entrepeneur? Why not embrace what it is that he has to offer? You may actually have something to gain in terms of new and extra business.

I found the email, to be quite frank, to be quite offensive in its content. It does not show your organization in a good light."

Regards

Al Reeves

This message was sent from the free private e-mail service by easy.com, the portal site owned by Stelios and the easyGroup. This email service is available to all members of the public to use for personal reasons only. Not all subscribers to this e-mail service are representatives of an easyGroup company.

Sure enough, the correspondent received the following reply from the president himself of the US travel agency in which he seems keen to distance himself from his employee. It should be noted that the original email from the US travel agent came from the travel agency's email address and the travel agent printed his name and that of the travel agency together at the base of his email:

"Mr. Reeves,

Firstly, Mr. Caulk is a well known travel agent who has been dealing with the cruise industry for many years and he has a right to voice his opinion about anything that is a public matter. He is certainly qualified to have a personal opinion (I am sure he did not represent himself as an officer of my company). As a long standing member of the travel community, Mr. Caulk often responds to articles of personal interest, if he feels that they are contrary to his opinion, to where an industry, company or idea may be going. Though he is not an official spokesman for our company, he can be considered a spokesman for our industry as an individual.

For you to assume that his stance has anything to do with my organization is totally incorrect. I am totally unaware of the company "Stelios/ easyCruise" you refer to and have absolutely no opinion on the matter.

The fact the Mr. Caulk is employed by my company and uses my email address, does not mean that I endorse or disagree with anything that he speaks his mind about. If you wish my opinion on this Stelios matter, I would be happy to review it and put my official opinion on it.

I am certainly not frightened by anything that some entrepreneur in Europe is proposing to do, however, if it is something contrary to our industry as we know it, or detrimental to the way our company and like companies operate in this country, I certainly would not embrace it and I would like to aware of it to voice my disagreement.

I find it offensive for you to state that you "must severely reprimand the stance that your organization takes against Stelios" as we as an organization have not taken a stance nor have any knowledge of the matter in which you refer.

I also find it to be offensive, and you certainly haven't provided me reference to who you are and what you represent, other than your email address and letter content. Is it safe to assume that you are personally involved or an employee of this company and you are financially dependent on the idea "Stelios" you embrace?

If you wish my company's or my personal opinion on the matter, please ask for it and I will respond accordingly."

Peter Berlin
President, Peter Berlin's Travel Center Inc.