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Welcome evening hosted by headline sponsor: Travelport:
A starry night sky, impressive rock formations, giraffe
overseeing proceedings - sponsors Travelport hosted a
spectacular African dinner, but under the indoor skies
of the Conference Centre after rain interfered with plans for
an outdoor evening.
With the marimba band drowned by the hubbub of
delegates greeting old friends over cups of mampoer, it was
clear that Conference 2009 was going to be lively! |
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Monday,
9th March 2009
Robyn Christie |
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Robyn Christie, ASATA CEO:
"The next couple of days provide
us with an opportunity to refocus..."
Robyn welcomed delegates to a conference designed to ignite
thought and dialogue around legislation, politics, the economy
and electronic distribution channels. The goal being to
equip delegates with a good understanding of the current
situation and ways to deal with it. Robyn called on the
ASATA President to officially open the Conference proceedings. |
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Laurie Wilkinson |
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Laurie Wilkinson, ASATA President:
"Achieving excellence happens by design,
not by chance..."
Setting the tone for conference, Laurie said that this
economic crisis will have an impact for a long time and challenged
ASATA members to rethink how they do business in the face of
increasing adversity. Knowledge is power and one of the key
benefits of membership in ASATA in difficult times is the
opportunity to network with colleagues and to share knowledge to
the benefit of all. |
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Didi Moyle |
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Didi Moyle, Acting CEO:
South African Tourism:
"We need to focus on the local
market as the bedrock of tourism during difficult time
internationally..."
Setting the tone for conference, Laurie said that
this economic crisis will have an impact for a long time and
challenged
ASATA members to rethink how they do business in the face of
increasing adversity. Knowledge is power and one of the key
benefits of membership in ASATA in difficult times is the
opportunity. |
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Mike Hatton |
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Mike Hatton,
President: World Travel Agents Association Alliance:
"The most
emotional purchase people make after buying a home is travel."
Mike Hatton, President of the WTAAA and the Australian
representative of the PAPGJC (Passenger Agency programme
Global Joint Council) spoke his mind on the current situation
in the travel industry. Mike delivered a controversial speech
including the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of airline
policy and IATA regulations affecting travel agents globally. |
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Rob Stokes |
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Rob Stokes, founder and Group CEO of Quirk eMarketing:
"Either see
the internet as a threat or an opportunity"
Author of the book "eMarketing: the essential guide to
online marketing", Rob took an unflinching look at the impact
of the internet on the travel industry and what smart
travel companies need to do to embrace it and make it work for
them. His advice was detailed and had been specifically geared
to the local travel industry. Each delegate was given a copy
of Rob's book, courtesy of Travelport. |
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ASTA's International
Destination Expo:
The International Destination Expo was held at Sun City
during the conference. After lunch on the Monday afternoon,
ASATA delegates were given the opportunity to visit the IDE to
meet, interact and develop new business partnerships with
their American counterparts. This was followed by an joint
American/South African evening with a finger supper and
entertainment in the amphitheatre. |
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Tuesday,
10th March 2009
George Delaney |
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Panel 1 - ASTA
Leisure Agents:
Retaining leisure
customers in the present economy
Rod Rutter facilitated a discussion with three visiting
members of the American Society of Travel Agents, who shared their
views on a range of issues facing travel agents in the leisure
market.
Some of the points that emerged from the discussion:
Agents need to embrace the new technologies as clients can be
confused by the abundance of information on the Internet and need
an agent who can advise them wisely.
While the Internet provides new methods for communicating with
one's client base, it's important to maintain close personal ties
within the local community.
Revenues are dropping, not because of customer loss but because
suppliers are selling cheaper products and commissions are being
cut.
In two instances, their agencies do not give unlimited time or
advice to a new prospective client. After 10-15 minutes, the client is
expected to pay a fee of $100 in one case and $250 in the other.
Cruises are becoming more popular as clients can
quantify all their holiday expenses upfront.
Staff incentives are not as high as they used to be, although
staff are still incentivised for upscaling.
The current slow period can be seen as an opportunity to gear up
staff with specialist destination knowledge. Preferred suppliers
are expected to assist with educationals for agency staff. |
Kalie Thomas |
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Scott Pinheiro |
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Matthew Lester |
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Professor Matthew Lester:
"South
Africa can and will survive all that is the global credit
crunch..."
Against the harsh reality that the local travel
industry had seen a 40% drop in leisure travel, Matthew looked to
the future and advised delegates to ride out the storm, which he
assured them would pass, as recession is a cyclical phenomenon. He
expressed the opinion that, despite the gloomy economic
outlook of the world, our Finance Minister & Banking Council are
doing a good job of ensuring that the SA economy will be one of
the less affected economies in the world. |
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Michael Judin |
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Michael Judin:
"Next
year, in June, your life changes forever"
As one of its authors, Michael set out to demystify the
draft "King 3" report (i.e. the Draft Report for Corporate
Governance for South Africa) which is set to profoundly change
corporate South Africa. He explained that King 3 will impact on
every single business entity in the country. Companies need to
ensure that they can comply with the rules and regulations of the
new Companies Act when it's implemented as their directors will be
held personally liable for non-compliance. |
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Mike Weingart |
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Panel 2 - ASTA
Corporate Agents:
Adding value to corporate
customers
Professor Berendien Lubbe of the University of Pretoria
led a discussion with two visiting
members of the American Society of Travel Agents, Teri Trettin and
Mike Weingart, exploring their take on current corporate travel
management in the United States.
Some of the points that emerged from the discussion:
Your best potential corporate clients are your current clients,
and you need to work hard at keeping them.
Corporate clients are always looking for added value, and you
must be prepared to give it.
Cost effectiveness and policy compliance are essential for
ongoing success in the corporate travel market.
It is essential to maintain good working relationships with the
airlines, despite zero commissions and GDS costs being passed on
to the travel agent. |
Teri Trettin |
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Tibor Zsadanyi |
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Panel 3 - Airlines, Agents and GDS:
GDS wastage in the system
-partnering in our approach to corporate customers
Chris Zweigenthal facilitated an extremely lively debate
with Vanya Lessing and Tibor Zsadanyi representing the travel
community on the one hand, and Yvonne Skerrit and Craig Thomas
representing the airlines on the other.
The goal was to identify 5 key issues in the GDS wastage problem
for ASATA to take forward to resolution in coming months.
Some of the points that were debated were:
Cancellations and rebookings occur because clients, particularly
corporates, often can't meet the 24 hour booking time limits.
Agents may need to make multiple bookings for quotation purposes
and these are not always cancelled.
Airlines often find themselves in a position of taking off with
less than full occupancy although bookings have indicated a full
flight.
Some airlines go direct to big corporate clients and are cutting
the travel agents, who supply the full range of travel services,
out of the loop.
There is little or no consistency in the protocols used by
individual airlines, resulting in ongoing confusion, even for
experienced travel consultants.
Airlines need to get involved in GDS training, and agencies need
to ensure that staff manage their bookings and cancellations.
Chris Zweigenthal |
Vanya Lessing |
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Craig Thomas |
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Yvonne Skerrit |
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Christo Snyman |
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The Final Word:
Introduction of the Riskwise
product to the travel industry
ASATA CEO, Robyn Christie introduced Christo Snyman to
present an overview of
Riskwise
and the security services against white-collar and in-house crime
that this company will be offering the travel
industry in cooperation with ASATA.
Conference wrap-up
Robyn reflected on the conference proceedings, on what had
been achieved and what focuses had emerged for the year ahead. She
thanked all speakers, sponsors and delegates for their
contribution to a very productive conference.
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Farewell evening hosted by headline sponsor: American Express
The Shebeen at Sun City's cultural village, was the perfect
setting on the final evening to conclude ASATA's 2009 Conference.
Sponsors, American Express, set the tone for the
evening with silly t-shirts for all delegates, lots to drink,
great upbeat music and superb food, and the conference delegates
needed no further urging. Suffice to saying that this loud, rowdy
bunch ended conference with a bang!
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MEDIA REPORTS
 World
Travel Agents Meet in South Africa
Travel Agent Central,
23 March 2009
The World Travel Agents Associations Alliance (WTAAA),
representing travel agents on a global basis, held its first 2009
board meeting in Sun City, March 9-10, in conjunction with the
American Society of Travel Agents' (ASTA) International
Destination Expo and the Association of South African Travel
Agents' (ASATA) 2009 convention...
ASTAs
IDE Hailed a Success by Attendees, Exhibitors
ASTA,
31 March 2009
The IDE in Sun City was the first time in which a local travel
trade association held its annual meeting in conjunction with the
event: the Association of South Africa Travel Agents (ASATA)
hosted its annual conference for 2009 at Sun City. ASATA members,
150 in all, were able to join in meetings, evening functions and
participate in the trade show, allowing travel agents from very
different parts of the world to interact and network on issues of
common ground... |
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