Duguid’s comments came during a panel discussion entitled Values Reimagined following news of the Advantage Travel Partnership’s first rebrand for 20 years, which features at its core a new vision, mission and set of brand values.

"One of the things that has been most liberating for me in the past few years is that I don’t accept poor service any more," said Kuoni managing director Duguid. "In my personal life, if I get poor service, I just take my business elsewhere. I only go to places where I feel my custom is valued."

Duguid, who was joined for the panel by easyJet holidays chief commercial officer Paul Bixby and Princess Cruises vice-president UK and Europe Eithne Williamson, said he had seen many examples on social media of "exasperated agents" suffering poor service.

"If you’ve been on hold for an hour, just hang up – call someone else," he continued. "I just think, particularly in a B2B environment, you should not stand poor service."

When moderator John Sullivan, Advantage’s commercial director, asked delegates if Duguid’s comments resonated with them, the room broke out in applause.

‘Be bold’

Reflecting on easyJet holidays’ values, Bixby said one that stood out was "be bold" – mirroring one of Advantage’s six new values. "We try to nurture a culture of innovation," he said. "Fail fast is what we call it as well. Don’t be afraid of not being right the first time."

Bixby said the days of travel businesses developing something to the n’th degree and making it perfect at launch were gone. "We don’t have to do that any more," he continued. "We have to live and breathe it.

"Take social media – start doing it, start experimenting. This proof of concept over here works, right, let’s launch it. Keep experimenting. I think that really resonates."

Bixby said this ethos had to start at the top. "The way we try to achieve this goes back to structure," he explained. "There are not many levels [at easyJet holidays] between top and bottom. Everyone has the opportunity to do things like this and actually experiment. And as soon as you get that DNA, it just multiplies and multiplies and multiplies.

"If the hierarchy don’t believe in it, then the people underneath will be scared to fail fast because they’ll be afraid of doing something wrong. It has to go all the way through an organisation.

"If you have one successful thing for 10 experiments, brilliant, because those 10 experiments cost nothing but the one that works will make you huge amounts of money."

‘People first’

Williamson, meanwhile, said Advantage’s "people first" value chimed with her. "The way we deliver is through our teams and the relationships we’ve got," she told delegates. "When I read the language around ‘people first’, it was about protect and respect. And that’s one of [Princess parent] Carnival’s values."

Williamson said this value went beyond "shore and ship" and extended to the people in the places Princess visits. "It’s about ensuring really decisive action is being taken to make sure we’re looking after everywhere we go and our people."

Princess, she said, had taken steps to create a supportive and inclusive environment, which includes convening an employee engagement group. "They work with the teams, understand some of their challenges and issues, and think about what we can do to help."

Williamson said Princess had acted on feedback by holding separate listening sessions for teams and leadership figures after feedback suggested having senior managers in these sessions were holding them back. "This is ever-evolving, listening to people and thinking about what you’re doing."

She said it was important to create a "progressive working environment" through values, adding it was vital to support development and training for everyone, not just those you work with.