Comment: AITO conference agent’s report

Tina Nason of Warwickshire-based Carrick Travel gave TravelMole her thoughts on the AITO annual conference.

"The first day was very much a catch-up on what had been happening since the conference last year. It was reassuring to hear that most of the members have similar views and, of course, problems facing their businesses. It has been a tough year and business continues to be very competitive. Frustratingly, outside forces are affecting everyone and, whilst we may feel that we should be expanding into new areas, trying new strategies and increasing our marketing, we should all remember to stay loyal to our principles and to stick to what we are good at.

AITO Agents chairman, Oliver Broad, updated members on what the panel had been doing to try to give members value-for-money on their membership fees. This included AITO Roadies spreading the AITO word when they are visiting members and a re-launch of the AITO All Stars scheme to enable all agent members to earn AITO credits to pay off their membership fee as a reward for their commitment to selling AITO products.

This was a reminder that we need to think about AITO a bit more too, because the more you put in, the more you get out! We can contribute more by getting involved in meetings, sending across feedback and ideas and by getting our staff motivated by appointing AITO Ambassadors.

Ted Wake from Kirker Holidays gave an interesting insight into the ‘grey market’, an opportunity he thought more agents could take advantage of. He seemed to be describing a Carrick Travel client down to a tee – loyal, consistent and appreciative of quality face-to-face service. As with all perfect clients, we need to work out how to find a few more of them!

Some interesting discussions were had regarding discounting, transaction fees and tour operators accepting bookings from non-bonded agents. To be honest, Carrick Travel has very clear policies regarding the first two – some of which we may look at revising following the discussions, eg perhaps the introduction of a small fee to show commitment to a complicated tailor-made quote. And discounting is definitely not a game we want to play – we value the service that our teams offer far too much.

The final morning bought us an insight into social media, something that has been on our ‘to do’ list for a while – we know it is worthwhile and we just need to get on with it!

The discussion of growth was an interesting topic for us too and it was useful to learn how to improve our leadership skills, especially in our new roles as owners of the business. We appreciate that to grow successfully as a team, all staff members must be actively involved and know that they count!  

Wednesday June 20^th 2012