continued on page 2

Capitalise on VFR business to grow Australia and New Zealand on page 10.

Asia and the Indian Ocean islands are topsfor weddings and hon-eymoons. From page 12.

TravCorp MD, Thersea Szejwallo, takes us behind the scenes as she marks 25 years with the company. See page 11.

Published by TTG Southern Africa

Travel Industry Review

Pentravel has opened its second next-generation Sun-shine Store, located in Pretoria East. Pictured (l to r): Sean Hough, Pentravel Chief Executive Officer, with Anrieth Symon, Zurich Insurance, the opening event’s headline sponsor and Butch Williams, Pentravel. The new store concept will support continued growth across the company’s high-street outlets. Pentravel sales have grown 734 percent over five years. More on page 9.

Pictured at the Elephant Hills resort and sanctuary in Southern Thailand (from left): Giles Clinton, Checkout Tours; TIR’s Sarah Whiteside; Kathy Ridler, Bobcat Travel; Jac-qui Carr, The Holiday Factory; Julia Schoen, Elephant Hills; Ronel Coston, Travel Vision; Karen Camm, Holiday Tours; Shona Pittaway, Perfect Destinations and TAT South Africa representative, Hermina Sennelo. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is working to attract more niche business. See page 8 for details.

Retailers praise intro oflow-cost route expansionDOMESTIC t ravel f rom Cape Town and Johannes-burg to Durban and East London will be cheaper from October, with FlySafair set to launch new low-cost services on all four routes from Octo-ber 25. Bookings are to open July 22, with the Johannesburg – East London route scheduled to operate twice weekly on weekdays, with one return flight on Saturdays and Sun-days. Johannesburg – Dur-

ban will start with four re-turn flights daily. There will be one daily return service between Cape Town and East London with two return f lights between Cape Town and Durban, except for weekends and Wednesdays when one return service will operate. Fares start at R399 one-way, except for the longer Cape Town – Durban route, which is from R499 one-way. continued on page 9

Single brand strategy set to growkulula holidays’ trade supportBY SARAH CORNWELL

COMAIR is to g row its packaged hol id ay busi-ness and boost retail sup-port through the merger of

its Holiday Tours and kulula holidays brands. The new, single brand will operate under the kulula holi-days banner from July 8. The Holiday Tours brand will be discontinued. The consolida-tion strategy will merge the two company’s assets, inven-tory, and resources, includ-ing staff. Travel agents will be di-rected to a “new and im-proved” holidays.kulula.com website following the changeover and will be able to access the site’s dedicated trade portal with their pre-scribed Holiday Tours log-in details. The kulula holidays B2B booking engine will show live availability, with func-tionality for instant book-ing confirmations, quoting and online payment. Pack-ages will all be commission-

able and existing supplier and agency contracts with Holiday Tours will not be affected by the transition, explained Brian Kitchin, Co-mair’s Executive Manager of Sales. Comair acquired a con-trolling stake in the Holiday Tours business in April 2011 and bought all remaining shares before the end of that year. Mr. Kitchin said the long-term plan had always been to leverage the parent com-pany’s buying power and the strength of its kulula brand: “The decision to merge the Holiday Tours brand into the kulula holidays brand was one that not only made busi-ness sense, but it was also a customer-centric decision,” he said. “Travel agents will benefit from kulula’s strong-

continued on page 2

Travelport campaign challengesnew direct distribution strategyBY SARAH CORNWELL

COINCIDENTALLY, but with perfect timing following the controversial announcement of Lufthansa’s new distribu-tion strategy, Travelport last month launched its global, multi-media campaign to and in support of travel agents. The campaign highlights the value of the travel agent using practical examples of customer benefits and the search functionality, which gives agents a competitive advantage over direct chan-nels. The campaign, which had been in the planning stages for two months, is scheduled to run for an extended pe-riod as the battle for agents’ hearts and minds continues and is expected to be fol-lowed by similar initiatives

from the other GDSs. Retailers have respond-ed angrily to the Lufthansa move, intended to slash GDS costs, and have claimed that, when airlines and other sup-pliers also strive to bring personalisation to services through the development and sale of new ancillary prod-uct, they and their customers are penalised when access to inventory is limited to direct booking channels. Ancillary sales have be-come a profit-boosting mech-anism for airlines, which generated around US$49-billion last year, according to the latest IdeaWorks/Car-Trawler Worldwide Estimate of Ancillary Revenue. That earnings potential, together with the move to cut GDS costs, has signifi-cantly shaped distribution

strategy. Those issues have been the driving force behind the Lufthansa Group’s new merchandising strategy and booking process. The German company drew f ire f rom the t rade and GDSs last month over its plans for its planned €16 booking Distribution Cost Charge for all GDS book-ings, due to become effective September 1. The levy is be-ing applied to all Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian and Brus-sels Airlines reservations. Other airlines have ex-plored similar changes and charges in the past in a bid to cut distribution costs but Luf-thansa will be the first legacy carrier to impose a global GDS booking surcharge, other than an at tempt by Northwest Airlines in 2004 and another from American Airlines in 2010/11, both of

News Digest

er buying power, resulting in more competitive pricing for their clients. “The amalgamated brand also boasts an increase in destination offerings, includ-ing a wider range of inter-national products, as well as access to the largest selection of real-time domestic and re-gional packages. “All Holiday Tours inven-tory will be rolled over into the new site and we will build on that. There may be some new destinations – and we won’t necessarily be f lying there – but we can negoti-ate deals and negotiate [pric-ing] on the back of huge vol-

... brand strategy set to growkulula holidays’ trade support

continued from page 1 umes.” An expanded sales force will mean more support for agents but Mr. Kitchin ex-plained: “… The same rec-ognised faces that have al-ways called on them will now represent kulula holidays, providing extra support and extra efficiency. “Comair has been oper-ating in this market for 75 years. It is a bit of a chal-lenger brand; a brand that is trusted… We want to add some of the kulula energy and spirit to the business and expect the market, consumer and trade and particularly suppliers, to jump onboard and enjoy this ride with us.”

MSC changes local line-upMSC Cruises has replaced calls to For t Dauphin in Madagascar on the upcoming 2015/16 South African sea-son’s seven-night itineraries, with stops in Ilha de Mozam-bique/Nampula. The change is a result of the MSC Sin-fonia being unable to berth alongside at Port d’Ehoala

Madagascar. Four- and five-night itiner-aries have been adapted with a two-day call at Portuguese Island, with an optional boat transfer to Inhaca island. MSC is also promoting new add-on beverage and hotel and transfer packages, which may be pre-purchased.

Briefly.

Sabre has appointed Richard Addey, its Coun-try Director in South Africa. Sabre’s Vice

President Middle East and Africa, Dean Bibb, said this would “help strengthen and solidify our growing presence, and accelerate technol-ogy delivery to this market, which is hungry for the latest innovations”.

which were withdrawn fol-lowing overwhelming trade opposition, unless a last-min-ute compromise is brokered. Jens Bischof, a member of the Lufthansa Board and Chief Commercial Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commented: “Until now, the percentage of revenue generated from the sale of flight tickets by our airlines has continuously decreased. While other service and sys-tem partners in the value chain are recording increas-ing margins and returns, our airline’s earnings have been compromised over t ime, even though they are the ac-tual providers of f light ser-vices. We want to counteract this trend by refocusing our commercial strategy.” The group also claimed its strategy would enable a more personalised experience for customers. It is also rolling out new flexible fare options, based on the principle that passengers pay only for the services they want. The group maintained travel agents could avoid the new fee by booking through the LHGroup-agent.com por-tal and said it was developing “new booking channels to form a direct link with sales partners”, based on IATA’s New Distribution Capability data standard. B o t h L u f t h a n s a a n d SWISS will participate in two NDC trials before the end of this year. While IATA

has so far only revealed the tests will focus on “the dynamic bundling of prod-ucts”, retailers say the Luf-thansa Group’s new charges will limit transparency and choice, in direct opposition to the airline’s objectives and the objectives of any new dis-tribution model. Retailers also claim that a secondary booking pro-cess is impractical and inef-ficient and have threatened to off-sell the airlines. Wally Gaynor, Club Travel Manag-ing Director, described the move as “arrogant, impracti-cal” and a threat to relations. “Even if I sign a pre-ferred par tnership agree-ment, it is ultimately the con-sultants’ choice. If I say push a particular product and they don’t like the supplier, they won’t sell it. “It is quite interesting that there are those European airlines that cry about the growth of [support for] the new kids on the block, Qa-tar, Turkish, Ethiopian… but they fail to see why it is hap-pening… there is a definite shift away from… carriers that are arrogant, anti-agent and where their business practices, particularly in re-lation to ADMs, which bor-der on theft,” he charged. “Our revenue stream relies on airline commission, over-rides and segment income. Each month we successfully run promotions to stimulate demand across our strong agent network. Quite simply,

continued from page 1

... campaign challenges new strategyany airline’s decision to levy charges for facilitating book-ings will negatively effect our ability to promote that particular airline’s invento-ry,” agreed Rian Bornman, FlightSite Managing Direc-tor. Jonathan Gerber, Travel Assignment Group Director, suggested the airlines first address fares that are “well below cost”. “What they need to un-derstand is that the GDS pro-vides us as agents – and them – with a one stop shop from which to sell their inventory. Have you seen the price of some of the LH flights out of the SA market?… When will they learn that we (agents) are not the enemy here - ri-diculous air fares are!” “In South Africa, unlike Europe and the US, the ma-jority of airline bookings still come from traditional and online agents… It is unrealis-tic to expect a complete stop-sell because agents sell what is best for their customer but, nine times out of 10, agents

have a choice. They must start exercising that choice,” Mr. Gaynor added. Although the Lufthansa Group remained f i rm in its decision, Allan Lunz, BidTravel Managing Di-rector, said he believed the threat of off-selling would be enough to eventually derail the airline’s plans. “I do think they will stop and come to their senses,” he said. “There will be an outburst in Europe if they want to charge a pas-senger 20 percent of the fare because [the domestic ticket] is booked through the GDS. “This is no different to what Amer ican Airl ines did… but 70 percent of Luf-thansa’s business comes via the GDS. They would be quite silly to force this change. “At the end of the day, air-lines need to realise that we [SA agents] are 75 percent of their business. All air-lines want to cut distribution costs… but will just have to negotiate a little harder with the GDSs.”

D-Day for unabridged birth certificate require-ment.

ASATA nails Home Af-fairs over ‘unintended consequences’.

Lufthansa faces agent backlash over new booking process.

1

2

3

4

5

enews updates

Most Read stories from the past month...

FlySafair boosts compe-tition with new domestic routes.

Security heightened at OR Tambo after stowa-way incident.

TIR Southern Africa • July 2015 3

4 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

News Digest

New Child VISA list simplifies birth certificate requirementsLOCAL t ravel company Drive South Africa has sim-plified Home Affairs’ new unabridged birth certificate requirements with its Child VISA Checklist. The web tool simplifies the process of determining which documents are needed, by asking users two or three simple, multiple-choice ques-tions and tourism businesses are being invited to share and upload the free resource. Home Affairs said last month it was working through the backlog of unabridged birth certificate applications and will accommodate those parents who are due to travel

but still have not received the required documentation eight weeks or more after the date of application. Andre Van Kets, co-crea-tor of the Child VISA Check-list, said Home Affairs’ “im-practical implementation” and the complexity of the new rules was creating un-certainty for families. According to Mr. Van Kets, co-founder of Drive South Africa, there are 15 different documents and 37 unique scenarios for chil-dren travelling in and out of South Africa. In less than a month, he said the checklist had been viewed more than

8,000 times. “We have received thank-you emails from travel agen-cies around the world... It has become quite apparent that the government is not going to be rolling back the regula-tions any time soon, so it is vital that the trade informs and empowers all t ravel-lers…”. Visit: www.drivesouthaf-rica.co.za/child-visa-check-list The Association of South-ern African Travel Agents has also made Home Affairs’ summary document of the new requirements available for download via its website.

Tourism stakeholders red flaglatest overseas arrival numbersLEADERS of the South Af-rican travel and tourism in-dustry have intensified pres-sure for a review of Home Affairs’ new immigration regulations, which they say is having “disastrous impacts” on inbound tourism. Tourism businesses are being asked to share proprietary business data to assist the campaign for change or outright cancel-lation of the new measures. T he gove r n me nt l a s t month committed to an in-ter-ministerial task team to look into the implementation of the regulations, headed by Home Affai rs Minis-ter Malusi Gigaba, but has drawn fire from the private sector, which wants a total overhaul of the new system. Lobbying had also intensi-fied ahead of the June 1 im-plementation date of Home Affairs’ new unabr idged birth certificate requirement for families travelling with children. Home Affairs said there was still room for discussion around the implementation of the new regulations,“but not to change them”. “You have had a whole year to [consult] and learn and understand what the new requirement is about… This [regulation] went through parliament and has been released publicly,” maintained DHA spokesper-son, Mayihlome Tshwete. “We are not saying we are not concerned about tour-ism but do you really think safety is not also a tourist

attraction? Some of the big-gest destinations in the world – France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the US – they all ask for the same documentation and that has not impacted their tourism industry. Why must South Africa be different? All we are asking for is that there is consent for children to travel. The argument is to let tourism thrive… I want to meet those parents who say, ‘it is okay for my kids to travel without consent’. We are probably inconvenienc-ing you a little more but it is for the safety of the child,” he said. But Western Cape Min-ister of Economic Oppor-tunities, Alan Winde, said “these visa regulations are destroying opportunities; they are killing hope” while government’s new plan to assess the situation was “fa-tally f lawed” as the review process “amounts to the Min-ister [Malusi Gigaba] investi-gating himself”. “Instead, he should sim-ply look at the numbers and listen to the industry,” Mr. Winde charged. The DA-led Western Cape is the only pro-vincial government to take issue with the new regula-tions. “We have tried to work within government struc-tures and protocols for over a year to get an audience to simply put our case on visa regulations on the table – to no effect,” said David Frost, Southern African Tourism Services Association Chief Executive Officer, in a per-

sonal address shared with the association’s members last month. “Promises about task teams and reviews are noth-ing but untruths,” he said. Like SATSA, the Asso-ciation of Southern African Travel Agents maintains the DHA’s assessment of the “unintended consequences” has been a “misnomer”, ada-mant the new inter-ministeri-al task team should be look-ing to change or cancel the rules and that the impact on forward bookings and long-term threat to inbound and outbound business had been overlooked. International Air Trans-port Association statistics show that the number of air-line tickets sold to South Af-rica were currently down 32 percent. South African Air-ways had previously said that demand for forward book-ings from this month was ex-pected to remain flat. By the end of June, Mr. Winde said there was even more evidence “demonstrat-ing the disastrous impact of South Africa’s visa regula-tions on our tourism sector” and provided “clear evidence we are closing the doors to tourists”. Mr. Winde was referring to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s lat-est Tourism Highlights: 2015 Edition and Statistics South Africa’s Tourism Migration report for February 2015. The UNWTO report highlighted, where international tourist arrivals to Africa increased by two percent and by three

percent to sub-Saharan Af-rica, arrivals to South Africa were flat. With China cu r rent ly ranked the world’s top spend-er in international tourism, Mr. Winde said South Africa had “deliberately excluded ourselves from this massive opportunity”. And while Australia has just announced a 10-year multiple entry visa for Chi-nese visitors, China Southern Airlines is set to launch di-rect flights to Kenya in Au-gust. In South Africa, Air China postponed the launch of direct flights, a move the airline attributed in part to recent xenophobic violence in South Africa but that Mr. Winde believed could also be attributed to the “onerous visa regulations”. Ar r ival numbers f rom China and other developing source markets have fallen steadily since last year, with Statistics SA’s report show-ing, in February 2015, around 7,748 Chinese visited South Africa, compared to 11,457 in February last year, Mr. Winde said.

Between February 2014 and February 2015, arrivals from India fell from 6,707 to 4,989. Over the same pe-riod, arrivals from Argen-tina decreased from 1,698 to 422. The figures show 3,245 Brazilian tourists arrived in South Africa in February 2014, compared with 2,260 in February 2015. Although Home Affairs has hinted at a systems up-grade at ports of entry to allow for the collection of biometrics on arrival, which would hopefully reverse the downward trend in arrivals from those overseas mar-kets, Mr. Winde said. The new regulations could cost

the economy R10-billion and more than 21,000 jobs. “You do not deserve to have the businesses that you have built up over many years crushed by heavy-handed bu-reaucratic bullshit,” Mr. Frost told SATSA members. SATSA is calling for “hard data, not just anecdotes” in the form of year-on-year per-centages that will show the variance in passengers/book-ings as well as turnover for April, May, June, July and August onwards. “We can still get this infor-mation through and maybe once we demonstrate evi-dence of decline, government will listen,” said Mr. Frost.

BY SARAH CORNWELL

At its recent AGM, the Federated Hospitality Associa-tion of Southern Africa in the Cape pledged support for a new anti-racism initiative by the City of Cape Town’s Mayor, Patricia de Lille, opposing xenophobic violence. Pictured above, the new FEDHASA Cape board.

News Digest

CemAir signs content agreement with Amadeus.CemAir’s inventory is now available on Amadeus. The airline flies from Johannes-burg to Bloemfontien, Sishen, Margate and Plettenberg Bay as well as from Cape Town to Plettenberg Bay. BSP commission is 2.5 percent.

Mozambique resort group appoints new sales leader for South Africa.The Minor Hotel Group has appointed Gavin Louw Director of Sales for its Mozam-bique portfolio, which includes the Anantara Bazaruto Island Resort & Spa, Anan-tara Medjumbe Island Resort & Spa and the AVANI Pemba Beach Hotel & Spa. He will be based in Johannesburg.

Dusit Thani Maldives adds all-inclusive land packages.The Dusit Thani Maldives resort (guest room pictured right) is promoting a new Dusit Island Getaway all-inclusive meal and ac-commodation plan from US$499 pppn. Bonus add-ons include a guided house reef snorkelling excursion, late check-out (until 15h00), 20 percent savings on spa treat-ments and a special rate of US$200 pp for sea plane transfers (one way).

Nambia Tourism adds new downloadable sales guides.The Namibia Tourism Directory 2015 is now available to tour operators and travel agents in A5 printed format or online at www.booknamibia.com.

Insight Vacations last-minute savings for US & Canada for European winter.Insight Vacations has savings on various US and Canada tours departing July through September, including a seven-day Enchanting Canyonlands option from R24,840 pps and a nine-day Best of California tour from R32,310 pps. An Early Payment Discount of 7.5 percent on select 2015/16 Winter Europe tours is valid for bookings paid in full before August 31.

The latest product sales, marketing and training resources for travel professionals.

Sales Resourcethe

DiaryThe AVIAREPS Airline Mini Fair will be held in Cape Town, at the Southern Sun Cape Sun, July 15. There will be two sessions, starting at 09h00 and 13h00.The Sports & Events Tourism Exchange takes place atthe Protea Hotel Fire & Ice!, Menlyn, October 27–29.For more information: www.sportsandevents.co.za

Qatar expands current South Africa scheduleQATAR Airways is to in-troduce daily frequencies to Cape Town from October 1 and double-daily f lights to Johannesburg from Decem-ber 17. Four weekly f lights to Durban via Johannesburg will also be added. The expanded schedule coincides with the airline’s 10th anniversary of service to South Africa. The airline will position one of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Doha – Johannesburg – Dur-ban route, featuring lie-f lat beds in business class and f ree Wi-Fi for economy-class. Dreamliner services will also be added to Cape

Town. The new schedule will mean 10 percent more capac-ity to and from South Af-rica. Marwan Koleilat, Chief Operating Officer, said the change was in response to

demand and focused specifi-cally on the strength of Qa-tar’s inbound services. Load factors, he said, were cur-rently in the high 70s. Network expansion plans for 2015 include a new daily

service to Amsterdam, in-troduced last month, and a five-times weekly service to Zanzibar, due to begin July 1. Three new destinations in Pakistan will be added before the end of August.

Qatar is upgrading its South African routes with new Dreamliner services to and from Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg before the end of the year. Pictured (above, l to r): Jared Lee, Qatar Airways Vice President – Africa, joined Chief Commercial Officer, Marwan Koleilat; Ravi Goonetilleke, Manager Eastern & Southern Africa and Country Manager for South Africa, Jonathan Minnett, at a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the airline’s new office in Cape Town last month.

Travel Vision, with Tour Greece, Cruises International, Emirates and the Sani Resort, a family-owned eco reserve on the western peninsula of Halkidiki, recently participated in a workshop in Cape Town. “Greece has become very popular as a destination this year,” commented Cheryl Smith, Travel Vision Sales Executive. Ms. Smith recom-mended customers take a seven-day tour around Crete “which offers opportunities to explore remote mountains, villages, caves and gorges”. Pictured (above, l to r): Philip Radopolous from Tour Greece; Cheryl Smith and Annemarie Lexow, both Travel Vision and Maria Fakka, Sani Resorts.

www.tir.co.za

THEGOOD

Comment

twitter.com/TIR_SA

follow us on twitter

EDITORIAL DIRECTORJohn Wardall

MANAGING EDITORSarah CornwellTel: 021 789 0053Mob: 072 772 2189sarah@tir.co.za

ASSOCIATE EDITORDominic Wardall

CONTRIBUTORSRichard HolmesSarah Whiteside

PUBLISHERJohn Wardall

ADVERTISINGDominic WardallTel: 021 789 0053Mob: 082 620 6425dominic@tir.co.za

Andrew WatsonTel: 021 447 1724Mob: 071 677 3858andrew@tir.co.za

CIRCULATIONtravgaz@iafrica.com

ACCOUNTSBeverley GoughBrenda Smith

ADMINISTRATIONNerina Nicholson

HEAD OFFICE9 Ruby TerraceNoordhoekCape TownPO Box 745Noordhoek, 7979Tel: 021 789 0053

REPRESENTATIONUK: MW Mediainfo@mwmedia.uk.com

Europe:Colin Murdoch

Thailand:World Media Co.

Malaysia: Raffles Int. Media

PRINTINGFormeset Printers©TTG Southern Africa 2015

Published by:TTG Southern Africa CC

Reg no: 1995/030913/23

6 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

THEBAD THEUGLYIt is always good news when an interna-tional airline increases services into the country and the Gulf carriers are leading the way. The latest is Qatar Airways. Hope-fully they are not banking on a windfall from the 2022 World Cup!

The staggeringly awful rand exchange rate is bad enough, due to its potential threat to outbound business but a visit to the bank for a few forex notes magnifies the stand-and-deliver gulf between the financial institutions’ buy and sell rates.

The “tax” box seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger concern for passengers due to its dizzyingly large portion of the total fare. And yet it is still unacceptably opaque, with probably one percent of cus-tomers understanding what it comprises.

Call for stockists:031 266 0620

Industry ViewStudy advocates less reliance on supplier incentives

THE Association of Southern African Travel Agents has released the first findings of its latest study into demands facing 21st century travel agents and the evolution of the TMC and retail agency business. Both were topics at the association’s annual member conference, held in Dur-ban in May. Here, we highlight key recommendations being made to members, aimed at building stronger corporate consultancies.

CONGRATULATIONS to Jolene Campbell, Brand Manager at Uniworld River Cruises, the winner of a stylish American Tourister Bon Air 55cm Spinner suitcase, valued at R1,399. Jolene was spotted with TIR at Buckingham Palace in London.

Cutting-edge, practical luggage is at hand, thanks to American Tourister. American Tourister Bon Air, a zipped polyprop collection, prevents brittle breakage. This ultra-tough material is injection moulded to pro-duce a modern, contemporary look with contrasting horizontal lines on a combination of matt and shiny surfaces. For the explorer with an eye for detail and a liking for a well-organised suitcase, the American Tourister Bon Air has a colour matching interior with cross ribbons and an apron zipped pocket in the bottom and a divider pad with a mesh pocket and cross ribbons up top. It also features soft-touch carry handles and TSA locks. Available in Pacific blue, lime green, orange, pink, red, navy, black and white, the American Tourister Bon Air Spinner 55cm is available fromluggage outlets.

Other airlines sit back and watch LH strategyIF you were to pick a list of the world’s best managed airlines, Lufthansa would be right up there. So what persuaded the airline to de-cide to isolate itself and be the guinea pig with its re-cent distribution initiative, which was bound to alienate its biggest source of revenue generators? It cannot have been una-ware of the reaction, which was to follow. The new booking strat-egy kicks in on September 1, when reservations made via the GDSs will attract a Distribution Cost Charge of €16. The intention is to drive bookings through the car-rier’s own portals. With 70 percent of the air-

line’s sales coming through the GDSs, this is a r isky move, which has already been widely criticised glob-ally by the GDSs themselves and the travel trade, not least in South Africa. The raw numbers, without taking other practical issues into account, seem to make sense. Luf thansa est imates a GDS booking costs it an average of €18 but its own channels will cost only €2. With the €16 GDS fee, the bottom line is that a booking will then cost it nothing that is not passed on to the travel agent and then, inevitably, the consumer. For the trade, that is con-cern enough. But there are

other issues. Agency incen-tives based on GDS sales will take a hit and the airline is to restrict what it makes available through the GDSs, including some fares and an-cillary charges, to its own systems. And it will increase agencies’ workflows and dis-rupt their management infor-mation. A further blow to travel agents is that it is also going to make fare and schedule comparisons more difficult, affect competition and in-crease the workload. The GDSs are not amused but, in an added blow, the airline is planning to increase development of its lhgroup-agent.com website as the key channel for agency reserva-

tions. Then Lufthansa’s lat-est product developments will ultimately be accessi-ble through the IATA NDC when that is implemented. It is currently undergoing pilot trials with some member air-lines, including Lufthansa. Looking purely at the trav-el agency aspect, surely it would have made more sense to incentivise agents to use Lufthansa’s own channel with less than what the air-line pays the GDSs and then the battle would only be with the GDSs instead of also with agents and their customers? The future of the new strat-egy will depend on whether or not most other carriers follow suit. They will all be watching, leaving Lufthansa

to take the heat on its own, to see if the carrier pulls it off without too much loss of business. A similar plan was float-ed by Northwest Airlines in 2004 but collapsed under a barrage of negative response from the trade. Travel agents in South Af-rica and overseas have made it clear that their Lufthansa business will be affected, so it becomes a consideration of the savings on GDS costs versus a loss of trade busi-ness and for how long that is likely to last. Expect growing opposi-t ion f rom the GDSs and agency community as the implementation date draws closer.

Travel Management Companies in South Africa must ensure their remuneration model focuses on charging customers for the value they add to travel bookings and rely less on supplier payments. The assertion is one of the primary find-ings and recommendations highlighted by ASATA’s new thought leadership paper on the 21st Century Travel Agent. Researchers looked at more than 150 resources to identify global trends in leisure and corporate travel which are becoming increasingly relevant in the South African market. The study considered how effec-tively Travel Management Companies were able to access deals and establish stronger personal relationships with suppliers; their ability to provide specialist first-hand des-tination and product knowledge and the impact of travel technology on the booking and management process. Jason Krause, Founding Principal at

Quadrant Five, the research firm be-

hind the study, said there was proof of “sig-nificant and rapid chang-es” in the mar-ketplace that

were affecting and accelerating

changes in buyer b e h av i o u r a n d

travel patterns. “In particular, the

traveller is far

more savvy and has heightened service expectations… is far better informed and equipped than in the past and therefore far more demanding of the value required from travel management companies,” Mr. Krause explained. While travel suppliers’ direct distribution channels are also increasing, the research found that digitally-enabled self service tools were also “weakening the attractive-ness” of the TMCs’ traditional transactional value. “…Competitive rivalry between TMCs is toughening, while at the same time, the negotiating power of customers and sup-pliers’ own travel management companies is on the increase,” Mr. Krause explained. “In the past, TMCs provided a travel book-ing and management service to customers while relying commercially on travel sup-pliers as their primary source of revenue. As a result, they have built key elements of their business models, including customer service and pricing models, largely around the expectations and requirements of travel suppliers.” With supplier revenue diminishing, TMCs are having to refocus their businesses to work with and represent both the corporate and leisure traveller. The study also found dissatisfaction among customers where agents were not charging “fair and reason-ably priced” rates for services. Where this mistrust occurred, relationships could be sometimes weak and subject to tension, the paper proved. To adapt and strengthen their business, the study makes seven key recommenda-tions:1. TMCs need to change their business value proposition urgently in response to the changes that have and continue to take place in the macro-economic and industry environment to survive financially in the Jason Krause, Founding Principal at

Quadrant Five.continued on page 8

8 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

News Digest

future;2. TMCs should become far more customer-centric and focus on providing services that are relevant to meeting their customers’ key priority needs at a price point that is ap-propriate;3. TMCs should build strong, intimate rela-tionships with their customers who need to trust that their best interests are being taken into account by TMCs and that TMCs are able to deliver the purported value to their customers;4. They must fully utilise their knowledge and expertise to become specialist advisors and consultants in order to provide “tangi-ble value”;5. Invest in educating and motivating em-ployees, as “they are critical to TMCs actu-ally becoming true travel consultants to their customers”;6. TMCs should manage their supplier rela-tionships very carefully in order to balance their value to customers with the value that they receive from and the value that they offer to suppliers, in order to avoid any actu-al or perceived conflict of interest between themselves and their customer and7. TMCs should consider changing their re-muneration model to focus on and charge

for the value that they add to their custom-ers and rely less on supplier payments for their profitability. “The paper proposes that placing the customer at the heart of their business and truly understanding their customers’ con-text, circumstances and particular needs is the path upon which the 21st century travel management company should embark,” explained Mr. Krause. “This will require TMCs to have a different type and at times possibly a different level of conversation with their customers than they are cur-rently having today; a conversation that will allow travel management companies to demonstrate an ability to apply their travel knowledge, experience, expertise and relationships to create true value for their customers and to regain their customers’ trust. “... TMCs will need to take very visible action to reorient their businesses around meeting their customers’ travel needs in not only an effective but, just as importantly, an efficient manner, because the research indicates that customers are willing to pay a fair and reasonable price for professional services that they perceive to be valuable but do expect TMCs to organise and man-age their businesses efficiently,” he said.

continued from page 6

Industry View

Thailand sets new strategyto grow its niche markets THE Tourism Authority of Thailand has identified five niche markets to grow over-seas arrivals this year and will work with wholesalers to develop new packages to encourage repeat business in the South African market. The five-tiered strategy will include honeymoons and weddings, green tour-ism, golf tourism and spa and wellness programmes. Re-gional tourism is the fifth pillar.

The tourism authority re-vealed its plan for the coming year at last month’s annual Thai Travel Mart trade show in Bangkok. TAT said it expects growth in overseas business of two percent this year. The upturn in foreign ar-rivals began in the last quar-ter of 2014, after an extended period of political unrest. Despite the loss of South Africa’s only direct f light when Thai Airways with-drew in January, demand here is also on the rise, com-

mented Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Executive Director of Europe, Africa and Middle East Region, speaking at TTM. South Africa accounts for 70,000 visitors to Thailand each year and TAT is target-ing growth of between three and five percent. Tour operators are being encouraged to leverage the new niche campaign, as well as TAT’s two other cam-paigns, Experience Thainess, focusing on the destination’s events, and the Twelve Hid-

den Gems of Thailand pro-gramme, promoting second-ary tourist destinations, as well as cultural and natural attractions. Mr. Petsuwan also em-phasises that TAT’s global marketing activities are be-ing backed up by new infra-structure projects, including the expansion of Phuket and Chiang Mai airports and new high-speed rail links.

BY SARAH WHITESIDE

Operators and suppliers viewed product highlights and new combinations with local travel agents at the Tour-ism Authority of Thailand’s recent Discover Thainess Roadshow. Pictured in Cape Town (l to r): Centara Ho-tels and Resorts, Janine Pienaar and Melanie Floor, with Pentravel consultants.

SA tour operators at the Cha Da Hotel in Krabi dur-ing the 2015 TTM+ famil-iarisation. Pictured right (back, l to r): Giles Clinton, Checkout Tours; Tamlynn Lindeque, Checkout Travel; Henda Heyneke, Heyneke Tours and Hermina Senne-lo, TAT South Africa, with (middle) Shona Pittaway, Perfect Destinations; Jac-qui Carr, Holiday Factory; Kerry Woodgate, Checkout Tours and Karen Camm, Holiday Tours and (front) Panja Sriprapa, Tour East; Ronel Coston, Travel Vi-sion and Kathy Ridler, Bobcat Travel.

* See next month’s Year-End Breaks feature for more Thai-land recommendations.

TIR Southern Africa • July 2015 9

News Digest

Pentravel strengthens high streetBY SARAH CORNWELL

PENTRAVEL is investing more into its new next gen-eration customer experience Sunshine Store concept with a second pilot store opening in the Woodlands Mall in Pretoria last month. The investment is a major show of confidence in the future growth of its bricks and mortar business and the value of face-to-face consult-ing.

“A quarter of our sales are walk-ins, so our new look shops responded to this aes-thetically,” said Chief Execu-tive Officer, Sean Hough. In addition to new “inter-active” consulting desks, the concept stores also feature

a new colour palette, rotat-ing booking screens, an iPad browsing station, dynamic external video walls and fun touches that speak to Pentra-vel’s fun brand, such as As-troturf-covered walls and an oversized map of the world. Pretoria’s Woodlands joins Durban’s Watercrest store as the first flagships of Pen-travel’s new national retail strategy. The 28 other exist ing stores are due to be refitted

in the coming years. Pent ravel has at tained growth of 743 percent over the past five years, up from a R2.7-million loss in 2014 to a R20-million profit (PBIT) in 2014. This despite prevailing in-

The agency model has evolved maintains CEO Sean Hough

Pentravel maps the ‘evolution of the travel agent’ (above).

Pentravel ’s Dierdre De Swardt; Kylie Bergset; Kel-ly Murgatroyd and Tarren Webb (l to r), showcase the Woodland store’s design concept and consulting stations.

dustry challenges and tough trading conditions since the recession in 2008/09, said Mr. Hough: “We don’t sell holidays, we sell happiness. “We go above and beyond to create extraordinary cus-tomer experiences… proud of these figures as, besides dispelling the common myth that a physical travel expert is no longer relevant, it is testa-ment to our focus on building strong, sustainable relation-ships with our customers that keeps them coming back,” he added.

Pentravel consultants are posit ioned as specialists in beach, cruise, snow and guided holidays, making agent training another major point of focus. “We invest in their (con-sultants’) ongoing education by sending them to exciting

places… This is wonderful for their personal adventures, while our customers enjoy the depth of experience that these once-in-a-lifetime trips afford and is why we retain our competitive position in the leisure travel industry,” he explained.

In a f irst fare comparison study published by Trav-elstart last month, the on-line retailer said passengers would save up to 39 percent on some routes, while Fly-Safair would be “bringing a refreshing competitive edge to previously unoperated routes”. Franz von Wielligh, Flight Specials General Manager, said the airline’s expanded schedule was “ fantast ic news” and was particularly happy about the launch of a new Johannesburg – East London link: “This one has been historically neglected by airlines,” he said. “I re-ally hope [FlySafair] will also introduce a Cape Town

– Bloemfontein service in future, as this route carries some of the most expensive domestic fares currently.” While he had yet to spot any significant dip in fares from other airlines, Mr. Von Wielligh said there had been no heavy increases either and “more competition will actu-ally just keep prices realistic, according to demand”. “Competition is healthy and FlySafair has made the first cut in terms of its sur-vival in the domestic market, now looking to expand,” re-marked Allan Lunz, BidTrav-el Managing Director, who said leisure and corporate sales for the new carrier had been good since the airline made its debut in October

last year. “The consumer has more choice and the one thing that works today is price… [FlySafair] now just needs to grow from its youth into a mature airline.” Kirby Gordon, FlySafair Vice President of Market-ing, encouraged passengers to book the new routes early to secure the best available rates. “Obviously now is a lekker time to be booking as all that inventory will be re-leased… [but it is] first come, first served.” Addit ional new routes have not been ruled out, ac-cording to Mr. Gordon, who said the airline would first fo-cus on bedding down its new schedule and on strengthen-ing trade partnerships.

FlySafair had hinted at plans to expand its network for some time before last month’s surprise announce-ment and recently conducted a nationwide consumer sur-vey to help develop its new schedule. According to Mr. Gordon, more than half of the 20,000 respondents voted in favour of a new Cape Town - East London service. Amongst the trade, Cape Town - Durban was the most popular choice. “We are certainly not tak-ing our foot off the gas in terms of growth,” he said. “People are asking for Kru-ger, Lanseria… It really is a matter of us taking a look at demand and where expansion is most practical.”

Retailers praise intro of low-cost route expansioncontinued from page 1

Briefly.

EgyptAir has ap-pointed A shraf

Hakim Alsayad, Re-gional General Man-ager in South Africa.

10 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

Demand steady for Down UnderAgents can capitalise on VFR opportunity by recommending add-ons and unique activities

THE rising cost of a Down Under holiday or family visit has been accelerated by the rand exchange rate and rising air fares. Arrivals from South Af-rica and anecdotal evidence suggest bookings for travel to Australia and New Zealand are just managing to hold steady. “Demand for Australia and New Zealand has been static over the past year,” agreed John Ridler, spokes-person for Thompsons Holi-days. “It would appear that a large percentage of the traffic is Visiting Friends and Rela-tives who want a few days off while visiting family.” However, some demand is still there with self-drive tours, hotel breaks and beach escapes remaining popular, said Ronel Coston, Product Development Manager for

Travel Vision: “There has been an increase in demand for both Australia and New Zealand… we have actually noticed an increase in tourist [demand], but VFR travellers are still prominent, and re-quest add-ons like rail trips, beach and Great Barrier Reef packages.” A key concern and one reason behind the stagnant growth has been the lack of involvement by Tourism Australia in South Africa. Although Tourism Austral-ia’s global online training re-source, The Aussie Specialist Program, is available, it is not backed up with regular road shows or agent incentives. “We do in-house training to reservation and sales staff, which is difficult as we have no support from a tourism body for expert input,” ex-plained Ms. Coston. The Travel Corporation Sa les Team, prev iously

BY RICHARD HOLMES known as the One Stop Tour-ing Shop, also conducts its own sales training. While the lack of support is frustrating, the numbers explain why South Africa is low down the list of priorities for Tourism Australia. Aust ralia has repor ted 6.9-million visitor arrivals for the year ending February, an increase of 7.1 percent. South African travellers ac-counted for 54,300, a 0.9 per-cent drop. Tourists accounted for the largest number of arrivals, followed by VFR. This was also a sector that showed the second-strongest growth, at over eight percent. While VFR traffic forms a large part of demand, travel-lers routinely add on a few days of independent travel: an opportunity for agents and operators. “Our Down Under and Kiwi cousins have always

catered for South Africa trav-ellers from a VFR perspec-tive. Thus it does to some extent lend itself as being a FIT destination, however we still get enquiries for our New Zealand and Austral-ian holidays,” said Theresa Szejwallo, Trafalgar South Africa’s Managing Director. To g row more leisu re business, specialists suggest agents seek out more early booking specials, value-adds, such as Qantas’ free stopovers, and new combina-tions, such as Mauritius and Australia, as well as pack-aged inclusions. Qantas and Visit Australia regularly promote ‘insider secrets’ on free and almost-free activities and entertain-ment options in major tourist destinations. The Kiwis’ 100% Pure New Zealand specialist train-ing programme for travel agents also promotes new

product, accommodation op-tions, activities and excur-sions. The platform has re-cently been upgraded with a focus on the closeness, diver-sity and uniqueness of major attractions. The tourism board has

also just launched a new tagline, ‘Every day a differ-ent journey’ and a new logo, which will be used in all Tourism New Zealand activ-ity, including marketing and advertising displays and for newzealand.com.

New Zealand Tourism recommends agents use the ‘Discover New Zealand’ section on traveltrade.newzea-land.com to increase their knowledge of New Zealand’s regions. It includes key selling points, attractions and helpful tips. Queenstown (pictured above) has been po-sitioned as an adventure-filled, year-round destination.

Photo: New Zealand Tourism

Sell These

Thompsons Holidays has three-night packages to dis-cover Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef (pictured above), including a high-speed catamaran to the reef for snorkelling and viewing from the underwater ob-servatory. Customers can also experience the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, ride the Skyrail Cableway to the Barron Gorge National Park and experience the Kurandu Train. From R9,007 pps.

The nine-day At Leisure Discover Australia itinerary is Trafalgar’s top-selling Australia itinerary, taking in Sydney, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Cairns and the Great Bar-rier Reef. Highlights include sunset and sunrise views of Uluru, snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and a Sydney harbour cruise. The ‘Be My Guest’ Insider Ex-perience on this tour takes guests to three of Sydney’s top restaurants. From R34,450 pps.

Travel Vision’s Sydney City Break is from R3,895 pps, valid July 1 – September 30 and December 13 – 28. Customers paying for three nights at the four-star Mercure Sydney receive a fourth night free. Airport transfers are included.

The new International Convention Centre project, in Sydney’s Darling Har-bour (pictured left), will cost AUS$3.4-billion and be Australia’s largest MICE facility when it opens in 2017.

Royal Caribbean will position Ovation of the Seas in Sydney for the 2016/17 winter. Once completed it will feature the Ripcord by iFLY skydiving activity, aerial observatory, Bionic Bar and SeaPlex – which is a mega indoor sports and entertainment complex.

Sydney Airport is undergoing major improvements as part of a 20-month project. The first stage is due to be com-pleted at the end of this year.

SilkAir now flies three times a week between Singapore and Cairns.

Destination New South Wales is promoting campgrounds for winter holidays with an extensive list of sites and facili-ties online at visitnsw.com but the tourism board recommends Lane Cover National Park for ‘glamping’.

American Airlines and Qantas have expanded their commercial agreement which will see the US carrier fly from Los Angeles to Sydney for the first time beginning December 17 and enable Qantas’ return to San Francisco.

Adelaide Sightseeing has two new tours of the city and surrounds. Explore Adelaide’s Southern Region includes trekking down the coastline and visiting the wine region of McLaren Vale. The Adelaide Oval has been added to the City Highlights tour. Visit www.adelaidesightseeing.com.au

The first phase of Sydney Harbour’s new Barangaroo waterfront area and harbour park is due to open this month. There are three zones, including a public events and recreation space, where hotel accommodation is being added.

Photo: Tourism Australia

News Digest

Growth and change mark milestoneAT the helm of The Travel Corporation South Africa, Managing Director, Thersea Szejwallo, marks 25 years with the company this year. Theresa takes TIR’s Sarah Cornwell on a walk down memory lane, sharing a glimpse of what’snext for the guided holiday specialist…

The Travel Corporation has been around for more than 40 years and is an established, family-run operation. How did you come to lead the team in South Africa?“I was first introduced to the travel industry when I worked as a consultant. From there I joined The Travel Corporation, started at the bottom and worked my way up. By getting to know and understand the business and the industry at large, I found that opportunities to grow just kept coming my way and I grew with the company and with the Tollman family. When I started 25 years ago, we were a team of five employees. Today we are close to 50 employees and our business has grown exponentially.”

What has been the personal highlight of your career?“It has definitely been the opportunity of living the lifestyle and enjoying my travel experiences for business and for pleasure. Also, being awarded the prestigious Stanley Toll-man global award, which I still dream about winning once again. I have managed to travel to 68 countries and have a great love for many of the wonderful places I have visited and people I have met. If I had to choose just one highlight destination, I would say Costa Rica. The entire experience was incredible as I got to travel with my daughters and this was ‘our’ little adventure together.”

What has been the biggest change in the business?“When we started, it was just the Trafalgar brand in South Africa. I lived through the changes in the business when we purchased Contiki. Several years later it was Insight Vaca-tions. Since then we have continued to acquire many more international businesses.”

And the change in relationships between operatorsand agencies?

“Relationships between operators and agencies are vital as the nature of the business has transformed into one that needs more interaction between these two parties. In fact it has become a three-way relationship between retail agents, suppliers and the people who travel, as travellers have be-come far more discerning with much higher expectations than before. The trade is always at the heart and centre of our business – the most valuable part of our business.”

How has the South African market developedover the years?“The industry went from many smaller players and, as the first consortium was formed (Sure), it was all go from there. Now we are at a stage of a few major players, and several smaller players. There was no such thing as ITCs. This is an exciting change to our industry. Technology also plays a major role, everything is now online, people want their information right now. As travellers demand more than ever before and with the many choices of product and companies available to them, the competition has become a lot fiercer.”

The Travel Corporation did a lot to reposition and reinvent the coach holiday concept. With all the changes, are you getting more and younger ‘millennials’ to join your tours?“Yes, the coach holiday concept is very successful and we really do cover a large area of the market – from age five years and up. We continue to reinvent this way of travel as we have taken the great suggestions and advice from our guests. We have formed many different styles of holidays… With regards to the millennials, all the variations we offer cater more and more for them. Who would have thought that South African millennials would want more art, history and culture 20 years ago? Back then, South African millennials went overseas to work for a year or so and then backpacked. Now, age doesn’t make that much of a difference. People want to experience the cultural and authentic experiences.”

The mind-set of the travel agent has also had to change. Do consultants today fully grasp the selling points and the potential for repeat business?“This is where we come in. We have a very professional sales team whose main aim is to train the trade on our product knowledge as well as to inform and assist the con-sultants with sales. We keep our business simple and easy to understand and this makes for hassle free sales for the consultants. We have many unique ways of doing this – a simple booking engine, online payments and, best of all, all our prices are sold in the local currency and they are guaranteed.

Who or what is your biggest competitor right now?“This year has been interesting. We have seen many desti-nations open up, from Thailand, even more from Mauritius and Turkey. We continue to, and always have, specialised in travel to UK, Europe and the Americas. I guess anyone selling any type of holiday package could be a competitor for a passenger who could be travelling with us. In the past few years, it feels like we have just scratched the surface but our market continues to grow. What companies are offering is one thing, what they deliver is sometimes very different to the expectations of the customer. We have worked hard on our actual delivery and going by the Feefo ratings – 100 percent reached in May this year – our reputation is preced-ing us. As demands change, so do we, so our work is never, ever done…”

What’s next from The Travel Corporation in 2015?“With technology, the world is our oyster. Already, with our Follow the Sun office, we are able to offer our services around the globe, any time of the day or night. This is the start to making our business borderless and standardised in every way across all countries. We are preparing for our 2016 travel destinations, which will be launched in October. As to my plans, I am still evolving in my role and there is so much more I want to achieve. Selling and customer be-haviour is especially interesting to me and becoming more experienced in this is one of my goals. Technology is open-ing up new possibilities every day. What you can dream, you really can achieve.”

Airlink launches PRY–CPT flightsSA AIRLINK will increase connectivity between Cape Town and Pretoria with the introduction three f lights daily to Tshwane City’s Won-derboom Airport, beginning August 16.

Wonderboom Airport was recently upgraded and Rodg-er Foster, Airlink Chief Ex-ecutive Officer, said: “All businesses, industries and communities located in and around Tshwane will benefit

Airlink introduced new cabin crew uniforms last month. Pictured above (l to r): Flight attendants Masilo Mofo-keng; Melissa Brown and Michelle van Wouw.

from the new services.” Flights will depart Won-derboom for Cape Town at 06h45, 09h45 and 17h45. Flights f rom Cape Town

to Wonderboom depart at 06h45, 15h00 and 17h30. Airlink will have an intra-continental-style business class service.

IATA stalls on its new baggage size guidelinesPLANS by the International Air Transport Association to introduce new carry-on baggage limits have been stalled following confusion and criticism, particularly in North America. The new optimum size for aircraft of 120 seats or more is: 55 x 35 x 20cm. Bags meeting the size limit will eventually carry a ‘cabin OK’ logo. IATA has maintained the move is not a revenue-generating scheme for air-lines.

But critics argued that pas-sengers whose carry-on bags fell outside of the new recom-mended standard size would be inconvenienced and, po-tentially, end up paying more in checked-baggage fees. IATA said it planned to engage further with partici-pants, IATA members and key stakeholders, reiterating: “Cabin OK is a guideline for an optimally-sized bag, not an industry standard. Cabin OK does not seek to define a maximum size for carry-

on bags, which is something each airline does individu-ally.” Similar restrictions have already been applied for commercial f lights to and

from South African airports. Current size restrictions for economy class carry-ons are 36 x 23 x 56cm, limited to one bag plus either a handbag or slimline laptop bag.

TIR Southern Africa • July 2015 11

12 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

Destination stag and hen parties an untapped but lucrative nicheBY SARAH WHITESIDE

WHILE destination bachelor and bachelorette parties are an established market over-seas, particularly to party cities like Las Vegas or to destinations where entertain-ment and consumables are considered relatively cheap, such as Prague and other Eastern European cities, lo-cal operators and retailers report this market segment is still undeveloped in South Africa. “International stag and hen parties are very popu-lar in the UK and are slowly catching on in SA,” remarked John Ridler, spokesperson for Thompsons Holidays. “Most of these tr ips take place locally but we have noted an increase in enquir-ies for parties in Mauritius and Thailand recently. “Groups are generally small, consisting of six to ten people, with Phuket being the most frequently requested destination due to the vibrant

nightlife and fun water ac-tivities available.” Giles Clinton, Director for Checkout Tours, agreed that local trips were most popular but also listed Mozambique, Victoria Falls and Mauritius as popular. “Drinking would probably play a big part in any trip,” said Mr. Clinton, but adventure activities are also popular. Kathy Ridler, owner of Bobcat Travel, named Phuket as her top stag or hen destina-tion due to its party atmos-phere along Bangla Road.

Mr. Ridler suggested day trips to Phi Phi Island and jungle safaris could appeal to these groups and encouraged travel agents to develop this potential market. “This mar-ket is by its nature a young one and the possibilities for future travel are enormous.” Mr. Clinton agreed that these trips could open up op-portunities for future wed-ding, honeymoons, personal and business travel but cau-tioned that it was important that trips go smoothly for the repeat business to follow.

For an overseas hen or stag party, the ARIA Resort & Casino (above) leads TripAdvisor’s list of the 20 Best Las Vegas Bachelor Party Hotels.

Indian Ocean islands topsfor overseas wedding-moonsBY RICHARD HOLMES

WHILE weddings are never easy on the pocket, the In-dian Ocean can be a value-for-money option. “Weddings abroad are definitely very popular,” said Odele Durr, World Leisure Holidays’ wedding specialist. “Enquiries have more than tripled from when I started ar ranging weddings two-and-a-half years ago.”

“ T h e S o u t h A f r i c a n market is booming when it comes to weddings, mainly in Mauritius,” said Melanie Ohis, Groups & Incentives Manager for LUX* Resorts & Hotels. “All our resorts are designed to welcome wed-dings; it can be a simple cou-ple wedding or a big wedding of 100 to 200 people.” Réunion and the Sey-chelles are two niche desti-nations, although Mauritius

remains the most popular for South African clients. “Weddings in Mauritius are extremely popular and contribute a big part of busi-ness,” remarked Joanne Vis-agie, Beachcomber Tours Na-tional Sales Manager. “Every year the enquires and book-ings for weddings increase: in 2014 Beachcomber’s Le Victoria hotel alone hosted 256 weddings, even with the policy of only one wedding per day!” “We find most wedding par ties are small and the bridal couple normally cov-er costs for themselves and immediate family, and then invite friends to join them with the cost of the holiday attached,” said Flora Fubbs,

Senior Manager – Contract-ing, Marketing and Opera-tions for The Holiday Fac-tory, who named Heritage Resor ts, Constance Belle Mare Plage and Kempinski as its most popular Mauritius resorts. Many resorts offer a sim-ple renewal of vows ceremo-ny for under R2,500, which will include the ceremony, dinner for two and special gifts, with all-inclusive pack-ages and dedicated wedding specials available. “Beachcomber offers the choice between the Classic Wedding Package and the Luxury Wedding Package, which have many of the in-clusions pre-paid...” added Ms. Visagie.

Le Victoria is the opera-tor’s most popular resort for South African couples, fol-lowed by Le Canonnier and Shandrani. “These packages are also commissionable to the agents who aid in selling the package,” she said. While the brand recog-nition amongst loyal LUX* clients has seen Réunion be-

come an increasingly popular destination, Zanzibar is gain-ing recognition. The newest addition to the city’s wed-ding hotels is the Park Hyatt Zanzibar. “The gardens surrounding the hotel are perfect venues for a wedding ceremony, and the Grand Salon is a luxuri-

World Leisure Holidays recently hosted a Mauritius educational at some of its top-selling Sun Resorts properties, as well as the One&Only Le Saint Géran and Veranda properties. Pictured above at Long Beach resort (l to r): Sharlene Lifschfitz, Harvey World Travel Birnam; Sanel Volschenk, eTravel; Farzana Moolla, Harvey World Travel Klerksdorp; Ashley Hewitt, World Leisure Holidays Sales Manager: KwaZulu-Natal; Judy Wattrus, Harvey World Travel Nelspruit; Linda Nel, Harvey World Travel Tzaneen and Bernadette Munzer, Harvey World Travel Northcliff.

Briefly.

African Synergy has added Vamizi Island Villas in the Quirimbas Archipelago to its

portfolio. Honeymoon packages include sunset dhow cruises, massages and candle-lit beach dinner. Seven nights with transfers to and from Pemba, all meals, drinks, guided activities and extras is from US$16,890 pps October 1 – De-cember 15 and from US$18,430 between July 1 and September 30.

Anantara Bazaruto Island Resort & Spa has 50 percent discounts on the bride’s accom-

modation for bookings of four nights or more, valid until December 22. Includes a dhow cruise excursion and Rasul spa treatment for two.

At a glance

World Leisure Holidays recommends the three-star Veranda Pointe aux Biches for its affordable rates, with the view that more guests might be able to join the wedding party. The entry-level wedding package is free of charge and the hotel has a ‘barefoot’ concept to enhance the beach holiday experience with a more relaxed and laid-back atmosphere.

Until September 30, Beachcomber is providing five per-cent discount on accommodation for wedding guests staying at the resort where the wedding takes place. If the wedding party consists of 20 or more adult guests, the bridal couple receive complimentary accommodation (maximum seven nights at the hotel were the ceremony takes place).

Sugar Beach has one of the largest kids’ clubs on the island, so caters well for wedding guests with young children. The resort is World Leisure’s top-selling Mauritius property.

Sunset honeymoon din-ner, a là Beachcomber.

Mauritius honeymoon resorts

continued on page 13

TIR Southern Africa • July 2015 13

Don’t forgetthe paperwork

ous setting for a glamorous recep-tion,” said Sandra Kneubuhler, Global Sales Director, Hyatt Sales Force Africa. “[It] is one of the few hotels on the island with ex-tensive event facilities, so we do get a broad range of enquiries.” However, the legal process of getting married in Zanzibar is considerably more complex than Mauritius, so many clients opt for a simple renewal of vows here. Value-for-money is a concern here too: “Zanzibar is very much on the radar but at present the rates are not as competitive as Mauritius,” said John Ridler, spokesperson for Thompsons Holidays.

Couples need to remember that “over and above the costs of the actual wedding at the hotel, there are legalities that must be paid for in order for the marriage to be recognized as legal”, reminded Chantelle Browne, Indian Ocean Islands Product Manager, Holiday Tours. “The couple will need to be in Mauritius for about a week before the wedding to complete and sign paperwork and they will be travelling between the resort and Port Louis regularly during that time.” With paperwork throwing a spanner in the works “the vast majority of ‘weddings’ are re-newal of vows”, added Ms. Fubbs. “The couple completes the legal formalities in SA and has the cer-emony on the relevant island.” W hichever opt ion cl ients choose, it is important agents confirm that a ceremony is possi-ble on their chosen dates, as most resorts operate a policy of only

hosting one wedding per day. Having a plan B is also important, suggested Ms. Ohis: “Mauritius be-ing a tropical island, we do have some rainy hours which can spoil the celebration if there is no back-up.” Costs aside, part of the appeal of an island wedding is handing responsibility to a resort wedding co-ordinator. “We do most of the arrangements and briefing this side, so that when clients arrive in Mauritius they meet up with the hotel’s wedding coordi-

nator to tie up the last smaller details for the ceremony, making it a lot less stressful on the couple,” Ms. Durr explained.

To help agents with the planning and booking process, Thompsons has established a dedicated team that handles all wedding-related enquir-ies (weddings@thompsons.co.za). Beachcomber provides selling tools on its travel agent portal. Agents can download electronic fact sheets and brochures, slide shows

and videos at: www.beachcomber-online.co.za. World Leisure Holidays is mak-ing booking and quoting process-es more efficient for agents with the development of its new B2B booking portal. So far, only Mauritius product is bookable but WLH plans to expand functionality and content to include other destinations. Agents can register via a link on the wlh.co.za landing page and make reservations for accommoda-tion, f lights, transfers, add meal

continued from page 12

Indian Ocean islands tops for wedding-moons DiaryThe Seychelles Tourism Board will host its annual product roadshow in Johannesburg, July 21; Durban, July 22 and Cape Town, July 23. Register: samantha@border-air.co.za

plans and book excursions. They can also process quotations or go as far as paying online and issuing their own documents. Those who do not already have a business partner number will have to complete a new agency applica-tion form.

Sales support

Expert feedbackPrice is a major determin-ing factor, maintained Rod Rutter, Chief Operating Of-ficer of XL Travel, who said honeymoon choices were influenced by the rand and that Mauritius and Thailand were the most popular des-tinations. More retail agencies are also making honeymoon registries available to en-courage new business. Jonathan Gerber, Travel Assignment Group Manag-ing Director, said its regis-tries were popular: “We ad-vertise on various platforms for honeymooners. Every-one remembers their hon-eymoon so, if you can look after these clients, you have a good chance of keeping their family business in fu-ture.” Marco Cristofoli, Harvey World Travel Managing Di-rector, cautioned that con-version rates are generally quite low, with most cou-ples shopping around be-fore deciding. “That being said, when a honeymoon is booked with us... we gen-erally find that we have a customer for life.”

14 TIR Southern Africa • July 2015

Value drives more business EastBY SARAH WHITESIDE

BEACH destinations in the East are proving as popular with South African couples as some of the island geta-ways in the Indian Ocean, with local specialists report-ing strong demand for high-end packages. Thailand and Bali are top sellers for weddings, hon-eymoons and romantic es-capes with local specialists converting mostly four- and five-star quotes. Marco Cristofoli, Harvey World Travel Managing Di-rector, said Mauritius was the retailer’s top honeymoon destination, with Thailand a close second. John Ridler from Thomp-sons Holidays suggested “Thailand and Bali are fa-vourites for weddings and honeymoons in Asia as both destinations are affordable and offer the couple an unu-sual setting for the wedding ceremony or honeymoon getaway”. Phuket is Thomp-sons’ first choice, followed by Nusa Dua in Bali. A lthough Thai land is ahead, French Polynesia and Fiji are Bobcat Travel’s top sellers in Australasia this year, according to company owner, Kathy Ridler. Phuket

and Koh Samui are their most popular for weddings. Checkout Tours’ most popular honeymoon destina-tions are Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi in Thailand, according to company Director, Giles Clinton. “We would not recom-mend getting married in any-thing less than a four-star hotel as the property needs to have experience putting on weddings for the trip to run smoothly,” said Shona Pit-taway, Managing Director of Perfect Destinations. And, Mr. Clinton recom-mended, while weddings in Asia are generally more expensive and may involve more paperwork than cer-emonies in Mauritius, Thai-land has better value and more variety: “We often find that due to legalities, couples will opt to officially get mar-ried in South Africa, while car rying out a ceremony abroad.” “The hotels that we work with are experienced in han-dling weddings and we have direct contact with the wed-ding planner who remains in charge throughout the pro-cess. “In Thailand, hotels can be very flexible in catering to the bride’s wishes and, as we

also handle the arrangements for family and friends, wed-ding planning is relatively stress free from beginning to end,” added Ms. Pittaway. Drawbacks when assist-ing clients generally relate to the usual medical and visa requirements, although many specialists brought up the topic of wedding legalities. “As wedding ceremonies abroad are generally not con-sidered legal under South African law, many couples make the decision to get married by an officer of the courts before they depart for their trip,” said Ms. Pittaway. A major opportunity for savings is by combining a wedding and honeymoon in one trip. Couples can simply move to a different resort, is-land or even country for little to no extra charge. There are also a myriad of creative honeymoon and wedding options. Checkout Tours specialises in beach weddings and honeymoons but also has jungle and cul-tural options in Asia. Bobcat Travel features pri-vate tours through Vietnam and Cambodia, with options to end a honeymoon with a few days at a Thai beach re-sort. Turtle Island in Fiji, the

island where Blue Lagoon was filmed, is another of Ms. Ridler’s favourites and is a highlight recommended for honeymooners. Perfect Destinations will arrange a Western or tradi-tional Thai ceremony. “A Thai wedding will include a traditional monk’s blessing during the ceremony which adds some local f lavour to the event,” Ms. Pittaway ex-plained.

Thailand is rated one of SA’s top sellers with long-stay packages and plenty of inclusions.

Visa waiver for South Africaboosts travel to IndonesiaTOUR operators have wel-comed Indonesia’s new visa-free status for South African passport holders visiting for up to 30 days. Last month the Indonesian government applied sweep-ing changes to its visa waiver programme, abolishing visa requirements for 30 more countries. There are f ive interna-tional airports through which citizens of now 45 countries may enter visa free – Soekar-no-Hatta in Jakarta, Ngurah

Rai in Bali, Kuala Namu in Medan, Juanda in Surabaya and Hang Nadim in Batam. Operators expect that the change will boost business out of South Africa. “The relaxation of visa re-quirements and the added saving is always appealing to the South African travel-ler. More importantly, it also carries a message of welcome from the host country, which will posit ively inf luence travellers… [and] is a sav-ing of well over R400,” said

John Ridler, spokesperson for Thompsons Holidays. “We are very pleased with the news,” agreed Jacqui Carr, Product Manager, The Holiday Factory. “This also comes at a great time, as Emirates has launched services to Bali. The visa process has been relatively hassle-free, as it was granted on arrival… but this development is a saving of US$35 per person, which should certainly encourage business,” she said.

Elephant Hills, ThailandHotel Check

ELEPHANT sanctuaries like the Elephant Hills camps in South Thailand are drawing more business from tourists with an interest in experiential travel. Three-day packag-es at Elephant Hills include an afternoon interacting with the elephants and preparing and feeding them. This is followed by a guided canoe trip to view wildlife in the area. There are two lodges: the Elephant Camp, with 35 tents, en suite bathrooms, shaded decks and hammocks and the floating Rain Forest camp (pictured above), situated at the Khao Sok National Park, involving a boat trip across the 60km Cheow Lan dam. There are myriad activities to choose from, including kayaking, swimming, guided jungle and cave treks. This camp is much smaller with 10 floating tents and 10 others in a second camp, currently under construction. Meals are buffet-style and food was excellent. The Elephant Hills camps are well situated between a two- to three-hour drive from Krabi, Phuket, and Koh Samui, making it an ideal base for honeymooners wanting to explore more of South Thailand. Package rates include ac-commodation, all meals, activities and road transfers to and from any of these beach destinations. Wanderlust and TAT have awarded them the Thailand Green Excellence Award for Animal Welfare. Service was excellent. Industry rates are available to travel agents. To enquire: julie@elephanthills.com.

65_Accommodation

Overall rating: 81/100

75_Facilities

95_Location

90_Service

85_Attitude85_Food

70_Value x2

Sell theseCheckout Tours has three-star Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi combination packages, from R11,995 pps. Includes flights, accommodation, transfers, and airport taxes. Valid for travel until October 31 but block out dates may apply. Its four-star Phuket and Khao Lak combination packages are from R13,855 pps.

Perfect Destinations has a Phuket and Khao Lak honeymoon special with four nights’ accommodation from R15,100 pps, including a complimentary half-day tour of Phuket. Valid for travel until October 31.

TIR Southern Africa • July 2015 15

Personally Speakingby John Wardall

Open borders must mean Schengen is at riskT

continued on page 16

PS

PS

he f ynbos in Cape Town’s South Peninsula has come alive again after the devastat-ing fires which ravaged the area

in early March. Green shoots are bursting through be-tween the charred remains of proteas and trees and it has become a real pleasure again to drive past the Silvermine Nature Reserve on Ou Kaapse Weg and watch the new life on the mountain. When I think of the tedious commute colleagues and friends have to endure in London or New York, Toronto, Sydney or other cities around the world, it makes it a little easier to bear the many social, political and economic challenges we face in South Africa. I did say easier, not easy!

It came as no surprise when workers briefly closed the Eiffel Tower in Paris recently to protest the extent of pickpocketing outside the city’s landmark attraction. A similar thing happened at the Louvre in 2012. Paris is plagued by – I am not allowed to say it – gypsy gangs of pickpockets, often aggressive children run by an adult, who stands at a distance so as not to be impli-cated if the police intervene. The last time I was in Paris, I was harassed by some of these little brats and got very aggressive myself in return, threatening to clobber the little monsters before they finally gave up. It is a problem all over Europe and Spain is particularly bad. Friends had a suitcase stolen at Venice’s railway station a couple of years ago and others had suitcases stolen from the storage area at the end of the rail-way compartment. The issue is certainly one to warn clients about. South Africans are usually pretty careful to avoid becoming victims because they face the prospect of crime every day at home. But the defences go down when they go to Europe where they don’t expect it.

The action plan recommendations for the Western Cape’s Air Access Strategy is due to be presented to the Cabinet next month. It is intended to lead to direct air services into Cape Town from the US and more Afri-can cities. The US seems to be a bit of a longshot, particularly for Cape Town, and has a track

record of being unviable, except for Delta’s Atlanta – Johannesburg service, which has high load factors and high yields. SAA used to fly to Miami and later switched to Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta with services that originated in Johannes-burg. Fares were common-rated with those out of Johannesburg, a situation which has never been the case with other flights origi-nating in Cape Town and Durban but picking up passengers in Johannesburg en route to international destinations. Delta also used to operate direct to Cape Town via Dakar. But the city has always been a bit of a problem for the airlines because of the loads they were able to achieve and yields, which did not come close to those out of Jo-hannesburg, where the business, NGO and government numbers are so much greater. Capetonian tourists, even if they have truckloads of rands are also a lot more parsimonious than the much more free-spending Joburgers. There were rumours last month that American Airlines, which so far doesn’t fly to Africa or the Middle East at all, might announce the introduction of services to South Africa. They will have been watch-ing the performance of Delta but I’m not sure they currently have the equipment available at this point and the weak rand and economic projections for the country would give any potential investor pause for thought.

I am afraid the prognosis for SAA is look-ing decidedly bleak. Survival will be little short of a miracle unless the government is prepared to throw billions of rands at it on a continuing basis. Come to think of it, they have been doing that already. The airline is not in any state to be priva-tised and a takeover is inconceivable with its debt load and the investment that would be required to restructure and re-equip, plus the restrictions on foreign ownership. The government is hanging in for all the wrong reasons and a total lack of under-standing of how the real world works. I am instinctively opposed to subsidies for any business which cannot support itself on a long-term basis. If there is enough de-mand and support for a product or service, it should be able to operate profitably, un-less it is mismanaged. Nature doesn’t like a vacuum, neither does the airline business. Any shortfalls in service would soon be filled by another car-rier, so inconvenience to the public would

be short-lived. Inconvenience to politicians is another story. I don’t for a minute buy the argument about wider developmental needs and seem to recall that was used for SAA’s de-funct China operation. That was quickly going to be replaced by Air China until they looked at the numbers more closely and the government shot itself in the foot with its new visa rules. The introduction of SAA services be-tween Ghana and the US is further evidence that the airline has recognised the limita-tions of its options for non-stop interna-tional expansion from South Africa because we are at the end of the line, with little op-portunity for connecting traffic. The addition of Accra as its second hub in West Africa provides a much better op-portunity also for connections from North America to the rest of Africa. Whether or not that solves the bigger problem is an-other question.

Last month’s court decision dismissing Comair’s case questioning the R5-billion bailout of SAA in 2012 left me a bit puzzled. I spent five years of my airline tenure defending the position of a state-owned airline, which was in any case self-sustain-ing, and was then successful enough to be privatised. That was difficult enough. Doing the same for the relationship between SAA and the government would tax my admittedly limited capabilities. The ruling that a raft of SAA’s financial in-formation should not be made available to the court as it was supposedly proprietorial wasn’t even remotely convincing. It leads to the question: is SAA in even more of a mess than we suspected? The public’s right to know continues to play second fiddle in every peccadillo in which this government contributes its self-interest.

Despite previous promises that there would be no load shedding this winter and Cyril Ramalamadingdong’s assurances that eve-rything was under control at Eskom, we have been experiencing black-out creep. Slowly, slowly the frequency and stages have been climbing without people notic-ing. You tend to get used to anything.

As I sit here typing my opus, load shed-ding has just kicked in and I only checked an hour ago, when the Eskom website was still saying no load shedding today!

It is questionable how long the Schengen Agreement and therefore Schengen visas can survive, due to the illegal immigrant crisis in Europe and the inevitable security issues. The open border policy has been under-mined as French police have refused entry to hundreds of immigrants attempting to cross into France from the border town of Ventimiglia in Italy. Who can blame them? If Schengen bites the dust, it will mean individual visas for every country in Europe for South African passport holders, as if the hassle and cost of visas isn’t enough of a disincentive already. At this point, you have to wonder why so many people are going to the inconven-ience anyway when more than 100,000 people have entered Europe and the UK from Africa and the Middle East as sup-posed refugees. They are arriving by the boatload in Greece and Italy and then spreading across Europe with usually apparent impunity. So, forget the visas, enter Turkey, where South Africans don’t need visas, buy a used rubber dinghy or leaky rowboat, paddle across the short stretch of sea to the Greek island of Kos and you’re in business. I’m not sure why the Europeans don’t have the guts to deal with the influx and in-sist on accommodating serious future eco-nomic and social problems. But that’s the over-the-top human rights lobby for you.

There were some surprises in the recent ECA International survey of the world’s most expensive cities for ex-pats. It also gives a pretty clear indication of affordabil-ity for tourists. Number one was Juba in South Sudan and two was Luanda, Angola, although I don’t think they appeal to too many tourists. Zurich, Geneva, Bern and Basel were next, followed by Kinshasa, Shanghai and Beijing. Tokyo was only 16, Singapore 19 and New York way down at 29. I don’t know where they lost London and Sydney, which I find eye-wateringly expen-sive.

PS

PS

PS

PS

PS

In next month’s issue of TIR...

News Digest

Most of us were probably pleasantly sur-prised at just how well the World Cup went in 2010 in South Africa and it did a lot to promote the country as a desirable destina-tion to visit. So it is disappointing that the bribery scandal – and make no mistake, the US$10-million was a bribe – has tarnished our im-age. Not that South Africa has been alone in being tempted by the den of thieves in FIFA. In fact, the whole sport of football is rid-dled with greed, corruption and devoid of ethical behaviour. When the money reaches such preposterous proportions, it is inevita-ble.

It’s good to see the travel industry standing up to the government over the ill-advised new immigration regulations and basically telling them they are full of it. Too bad most businesses in most in-dustries don’t have the backbone to do the same. If they did, the economy might not be

in such a horrible mess. Not that Home Affairs is ever going to admit that the “unintended consequences” were a result of a bungled process, lack of consultation with industry experts and an arrogant stamping of feet, which has al-ready blown hundreds of millions of rands out of the political exhaust.

The fiasco last month when the govern-ment ignored the separation of powers, which enshrined that concept in Britain and has since been adopted by every democ-racy in the world, snubbed not only the In-ternational Criminal Court but also our own High Court and was complicit in allowing Omar “Basher” al-Bashir to escape justice was not only ominous but also ironic. The date was the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, the docu-ment which provided those safeguards for the people. 800 years later and the ANC still don’t get it!

... Schengen is at riskcontinued from page 15

PS

PS

We search for the best powder in the annual Skiing feature, plan your customers’ Year-End Breaks and visit the Middle East

in our next destination report.

BRRRRR!!! Club Travel con-sultants braved the cold on a recent educational to the Italian Alps, hosted in part-nership with Turkish Air-lines, Club Med, Fez Travel and Zurich Insurance. The group stayed at the Club Med Cervinia Resort with a stopover in Istanbul. Pic-tured left (l to r): Tracey Visscher of FlightSite; Jean-

Pierre Brink, Club Travel ITC; Rochelle Rubino, Checkout Travel; Genine de Witt, Club Travel ITC; Susan Williams, Susan’s Travel; Jacqueline Coupland, 360 Degrees Travel; Abdul Karriem Hoosain, Turkish Airlines and (in front) Marisa van der Merwe, Travel Latitude; Tatum Alexander, Club Travel Marketing Assistant and Lucinda Tyler, Club Travel Product Manager.

Youth specialist asks agents what they would book if they had choiceIN an effor t to establish whether travel agents’ per-sonal taste affects what they sell, Contiki Holidays asked travel agents worldwide to name their favourite of the brand’s eight new ‘Ways to Travel’ touring styles. The operator asked ques-tions such as what sort of daytime activity travellers prefer and what the perfect evening on holiday would include. 2,700 travel agents partici-pated in the survey, with Con-tiki’s Discovery Plus touring style ranked tops. The results suggested “like consumers, agents on holiday want to enjoy comfort while discov-ering everything their chosen destination has to offer”. The second most popu-lar touring style was the In-Depth Explorer, which Con-tiki positions as “a chance for customers to immerse them-selves in local culture, archi-tecture and experiences”.

Agent favourite, Discover Plus, is currently the most popular touring style cus-tomers are choosing, which Contiki said “begs the ques-tion of whether this agent preference could be having a subconscious effect on holi-days being sold to consum-ers”. The results of the quiz revealed the most popular travel styles among agents in South Africa:– 34 percent like to “explore new destinations in comfort” as Discovery Plus travellers;– 19 percent want to “im-merse themselves in a new place” as In-Depth Explor-ers;– 16 percent are late risers, wanting a “relaxed and care-free holiday” as Easy Pace travellers; – 11 percent “dream of soak-ing up the sun on crystal blue waters” as Sailing & Cruise travellers;– Nine percent are “lovers of

fast-paced and spirited trips”, seeing themselves as High Energy travellers;– Campers and Winter & Ski fanatics each accounted for seven percent; and– Fest ival & Shor t Stay travellers are “underrepre-sented among South African agents”, making up just three percent of test takers. “At Contiki we understand that often the reason behind becoming an agent is a love of travel, so we wanted to investigate and celebrate our agents as travel experts and advocates,” said Kelly Jack-son, General Manager South Africa. “It is so interesting to see that the most popular style of travel for agents mirrors the consumer favourite, and perhaps demonstrates how a personal connection can help sell these kinds of trips.” Agents can take the quiz online at www.contiki.com/mytravelstyle.

Briefly.

London has retained its position as the top international travel destina-tion for the fifth time in seven years, according to the results of the an-

nual MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index, published last month.