Cruise and online key features of TTA conference

TravelMole guest comment by Travel Trust Association managing director Simon Hargreaves

TTA is meeting this week for the first time since it joined forces with Worldchoice. 

The two groups of members are very different. The TTA members are often new entrants to the industry who have chosen the safety of a trust account system to protect their customers’ cash.

But TTA members face the same challenges as everyone else, and apart from talking about what the association is doing, we will look ahead at a number of issues that will prove to be opportunities in 2009.

Cruising – although affected by recession just like everything else – will continue to be one of the shining stars of the industry, and we hope that TTA members will grasp the opportunity to sell an even bigger slice of the 1.5 million cruise holidays that will be sold next year. 

It is simply too important a sector to ignore. We will be hearing from cruise companies covering all aspects from niche and luxury to the largest liners in the world.

Many TTA members rely on the internet more than anything else for expanding their business, and we will be hearing from Gary Grieve of Capela Travel Training about how companies can maximise the traffic to their websites without having to spend a fortune on design and external resources.  

There is no doubt that making sure your customers see you ahead of your competitors will be key in 2009.

We have seen a flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the last five years, and while 2009 may not be the best year to sell your business, for those who are brave there is the real opportunity to expand by acquiring another business at a better price than you would have paid last year. 

Andrew Burnham and Mike Kay of MacIntyre Hudson will be giving us the inside track on what to look for when buying a business, and if your long-term plan is to sell your own business, then they will tell you what to do today in order to maximise the results tomorrow.

We will also be hearing from Liz Jackson, who set up Great Guns Marketing when she was 25, and faced all the normal challenges that entrepreneurs have to deal with. 

The great thing about Liz is that she is an ordinary woman but with extraordinary determination. I am sure her example of dealing with unexpected challenges will motivate our delegates to face an uncertain future with greater confidence.

So I am looking forward to a very positive day. 

We are all facing the challenge of a downturn. That pressure will bring out the best in people. They will find ways to reduce costs and sell more effectively.

It will undoubtedly be a time of innovation. It’s at times like these that consortia need to work even harder and be flexible in the ways they help their members be successful.