Tourist offices seek higher profile

National tourist offices must play a much more active and upfront role in the UK travel industry, according to the Association of National Tourist Office Representatives.

They also need to take full advantage of the rapid rise in independent travel, according to newly re-elected chairman Serge Moes, director of the Luxembourg Tourist Office.

It would be a “big mistake” if members failed to capitalise on the golden opportunities presented by low-cost airlines and the explosion in do-it-yourself on-line bookings, he added.

Following ANTOR’s agm in London, Mr Moes said: “Everyone in the travel industry has slightly different agendas and the top priority for tourist offices is to maximise the number of visitors to their country.

“While there’s no question of ANTOR members looking to bypass the trade, I think it’s entirely right that we should continually assess its value – especially with so many competing demands on our budgets.

“ANTOR members would be crazy not to recognise the potential which has been created by so many holidaymakers now making their own plans. If you can book your own flight and your own accommodation, what more do you need other than to find out what the destination you’re going to visit has to offer?  That’s where tourist offices have an increasingly useful role to play.”

Mr Moes forecast no immediate threat to tourist offices providing partial funding for tour operators’ brochures.

“But we may start seeing tourist offices demanding a more evenly balanced commitment,” he admitted.  “This would perhaps discourage – or even penalise – tour operators which launch a speculative programme to a country one year only to pull out the next. That sort of tactic is very destabilising for destinations – and a waste of tourist office money.”

Travel agents were also targeted by Mr Moes, who said: “They can no longer expect to sit back and show little interest in destinations they’re supposed to be selling. ANTOR members accept that the day of the travel agent roadshow is probably dying on its feet. Agents have made it pretty clear they’re not interested – and that’s fair enough. 

“There’s little point in tourist offices investing time and money in regional events only to find that agents won’t turn up. But if that’s the case, both sides need to explore new ways of forging a relationship and creating a dialogue.”

Mr Moes said he wanted ANTOR to increasingly be seen as a catalyst for the travel industry.

“So often in the past ANTOR seems to have convinced itself that tourist offices are not really important whereas I believe they are central to the holiday experience – which is all about destinations. And it’s tourist offices which are the foremost representatives of destinations.”

Mr Moes reviewed the “considerable progress” made since the last agm in March 2004 when “ANTOR was in chaos.”

“It had lost touch with its members and its finances were in disarray” he conceded. This he attributed to “many years of indifference and inaction by several previous ANTOR Boards.”

He revealed that after an acrimonious battle with Reed Travel Exhibitions in the lead-up to last year’s World Travel Market over a proposed surcharge being imposed on exhibitors offering visitors ‘home-grown’ food and drink, the two sides had recently agreed to work together more constructively.

“That doesn’t mean that we will now accept all Reed’s demands without a murmur or that we will expect to have everything our own way. But instead of communicating with each other via critical press releases, we’re going to meet on a regular basis to talk things through. We also aim to use ANTOR’s place on the WTM Advisory Council to much more beneficial effect,” said Mr Moes.

He wants to broaden ANTOR’s membership to include more representation companies as well as government tourist offices. 

“Probably around half of all overseas tourist offices based in the UK are now operated by representation companies,” he said. “Rather than seeking to exclude those companies, my feeling is that we should be embracing them and encouraging them to become members. After all, they have similar, if not identical, objectives to government tourist offices and they will help bring a new dimension, new ideas and a new vibrancy to ANTOR.”

ANTOR’s new Board for 2005-06 includes four new faces: Bärbel Kirchner (Dubai), Matti Linnoila (Finland), Tracey Poggio (Gibraltar) and Leila Ben Hassen, UK director of the Tunisian National Tourist Office who was elected a vice-chairman. The second vice-chairman is Françoise Scheepers, UK director of the Belgian Tourist Office, Brussels & Wallonia who also assumes the role of treasurer. Others re-elected to the board were: Orestis Rossides (Cyprus), Michael Michael (Korea), Manuel Diaz-Cebrian (Mexico), Ali El Kasmi (Morocco) and Esther Smith (St Kitts).

Report by Phil Davies