A BOLTON holiday firm has come out at the bottom of a customer satisfaction table carried out by the Consumers' Association.

Only one in five holidaymakers said that they would recommend Kearsley-based Sunset Holidays.

The survey shows that holidaymakers are happier with small, specialist tour operators than with the industry "big boys".

But today Sunset slammed the report as "grossly misleading and irresponsible".

Managing Director Simon Vincent said: "The survey sampled only 0.03 per cent of the customers who travelled with our brands in 1998, and all from the Consumer Association's own membership.

"As a result, their findings do not present a true or accurate picture."

The company also offered details of its own independently audited research of 118,511 customers which showed that 85 per cent of Sunset customers would travel with them again.

Mr Vincent added: "Small niche market and specialist operators provide a different type of holiday and service and at different price scales to those offered by the mass market operators.

"You cannot simply put both sectors together in a comparative table and paint a clear and fair picture. The whole report smacks of headline chasing."

Independent

Sunset, based at Manchester Road, Kearsley, was an independent operator until 1995 when it was bought by the Flying Colours leisure group.

In June last year, the whole group was bought by Sunworld which is owned by the Thomas Cook group.

Other major holiday companies such as Airtours, Cosmos and First Choice also finished near the bottom of a customer satisfaction table compiled by the Consumer Association's Holiday Which? magazine.

Small company VFB Holidays, which specialises in French holidays, topped the table, followed by European villa holiday company Simply Travel.

But the Federation of Tour Operators, which represents holiday companies, rejected suggestions people were becoming dissatisfied with the big firms, claiming research showed the overwhelming majority of consumers were happy with their package holiday.

Thomson fared best of the big holiday companies, with 47 per cent of members willing to definitely recommend the company.

Based on replies from more than 10,600 people, the table also showed how companies fared on five categories - accommodation, brochures, changes to the holiday, travel arrangements and holiday reps.

Airtours, Sunset Holidays and Inspirations got bottom marks in four of the five categories.

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