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TUI’s high street technology challenge
Getting Thomson high street agents to embrace new technology is the biggest leadership challenge for TUI’s new customer operations director.
Taking part in a panel discussion, Fraser Ellacott told ABTA delegates that since he took over the role a month ago, his key challenge was to get the whole TUI community to embrace technology.
"We have just under 5,000 travel agents in 700 shops and the key leadership challenge for me is getting them to embrace the web, which is basically an historical challenge," he said.
"We’ve got to think about how we get change the sales culture into a sales and service culture and how to enable this with technology. The technology is fantastic but it’s the people that matter."
Fellow panelist Susan Hooper, chief executive of Acromas Travel, said the challenge for travel companies is to get the people who know the technology to work constructively with people on the commercial side.
"It’s important to recognise that just because somebody understands the technology doesn’t put them ahead of the game. It’s important to make sure there is no arrogance and that these two groups work together," she said.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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