travel industry review - · pdf filesome domes-tic suppliers have defended the cost...

Booking rush as Tintswalo Atlantic lodge recovers. See page 20.

Car rental com-panies register

growth in com-petitive sectors.

See page 15.

Ideas to beat the cur-rency exchange in the UK, Ireland & Europe report from page 12.

Published by TTG Southern AfricaTravel Industry Review

Southern African award’s categories were included for the first time at this year’s Air Mauritius awards cer-emony. Pictured above from Skyways Travel, winners of the Top Growth in Botswana for 2015 Award: Travel Manager, Brenda Mamode (left) and Marketing Man-ager, Misozi Kanyama. More on page 18.

“We want to use both their customer database and ours to push both our products, services and fares.” – Trav-elstart founder and CEO, Stephan Ekbergh (pictured above) talks about the next wave of product develop-ment and the business’ expansion plans, after securing US$40-million in funding from MTN and UK-based investment company, Amadeus Capital Partners, in a landmark deal announced last month. See page 18.

Tourism levy to benefit tradeBY SARAH CORNWELL

T H E Tou r i sm Busi ness Council of South Africa and South African Tourism are to introduce a new funding mechansim that would radi-cally strengthen destination marketing initiatives under-

taken by the travel trade. This follows, but is appar-ently unrelated to, the ref-erence in President Zuma’s State of the Nation Address last month that R100-million would be invested in boost-ing domestic tourism. Discussions were still un-

derway last month, as the parties worked to f inalise their new, three-year memo-randum of understanding. However, Lance Smith, Deputy Chairman of Tour-ism Marketing South Africa, the levy collecting arm of

continued on page 4

SAA results expectedto show little recoveryBY SARAH CORNWELL &DOMINIC WARDALL

SOUTH African Airways’ long-delayed financial re-sults are finally to be tabled by the 15th of this month, following another extension granted in mid-February. The latest delay was in order for the Finance Minister to consider the airline’s latest appeal for a guarantee. Parliament had previously granted SAA until Febru-ary 15, 2015 to finalise its accounts, whereafter an an-nual general meeting could have been called. That exten-sion was requested due to the

airline’s financial woes and external auditors’ concerns regarding SAA as a going concern and its liquidity po-sition. The results are expected to show lit tle progress in terms of recovery, with the implementation of the car-rier’s Long-Term Turnaround Strategy also delayed that year. A 90-day programme to begin the turnaround process was eventually initiated in the final quarter of 2015. SAA lodged its application for the going-concern guar-antee on December 21, 2015.

continued on page 4

Domestic rate increases highlight the value in international travelBY SARAH WHITESIDE

RETAILERS claimed last month that significant rate increases by some domestic suppliers has underlined the value still to be found in out-bound product. The anticipated market re-sistance to international trav-el as a result of the rand ex-change rate has so far failed to materialise. Some domes-tic suppliers have defended the cost adjustments as jus-tif iable, due to increased demand for their products, or increases in input costs due to the decline of the local currency. Retailers said raising pric-es at the same time as the downturn in the rand would

be counter-productive, par-ticularly at a time when there are moves to grow domestic tourism sales via the trade. Numerous industry lead-ers quote, off the record, lo-cal suppliers including car hire, hotel accommodation and safari lodges, which have issued price adjustments to take advantage of the ex-change rate in international markets, while penalising do-mestic travellers. The practice is not only at odds with the government’s plan to increase domestic tourism but undermines the message that domestic holi-days are a more reasonable and an affordable alternative to overseas holidays. The government has set

aside R100-million to grow domestic tourism and, during his State of the Nation Ad-dress last month, President Jacob Zuma urged South Af-ricans to become tourists in their own country. “We must take advantage of the exchange rate as well as the recent changes of visa regulations, to boost inbound tourism. The government will promote domestic tour-ism, encouraging South Af-ricans to tour their country,” he said. “There is a mixed mes-sage here. Inbound operators have raised concerns about increased rates with estab-lishments blaming this on increased marketing costs [in

continued on page 9

Local cruise consult-a n t s b o a rd e d Cu-nard’s Queen Eliza-beth in Cape Town last month , on i ts way to Port Elizabeth and across the Indian Ocean to Fremantle, Austral ia . Pictured left: Johan Nel, Mill-way Travel and Rene S impson , S impson Conferences and Trav-el. More on page 8.

4 TIR Southern Africa • March 2016

News Digest

Given the potential implication for the economy, the Treasury said the matter had required “ex-tensive and careful considera-tion”. In January, the department said it would ensure SAA would have the cash it needed to meet its obligations, indicating the inten-tion to keep effectively subsidis-ing the national carrier indefi-nitely. Last month, it gave approval for the airline to cease operat-ing its route between Johannes-burg and Abu Dhabi, in order to stem losses. SAA commenced the route in March 2015 but it did not perform as forecast. While more short-term fund-ing is inevitable, the Presidency said interventions on state-owned enterprises are on the cards, in line with the recommendations of the Presidential Review Com-mission that was initiated in 2011. This is expected to result in an extensive restructuring of the airline and a search for an equity partner. President Jacob Zuma said last month it was essential “to ensure the successful implementation of the National Development Plan, [state-owned enterprises] must be financially sound, be properly governed and managed”.

SAA results... little recovery

... levy to benefit trade

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enews updates

Most Read

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5

Government travel budgets to be slashed.

Agents respond well to new default insurance.

Tourism South Africa rebounding after‘disastrous’ two years.

Outcry prompts Home Affairs to reformimmigration rules.

Government approves SAA’s Abu Dhabiwithdrawal.

stories from thepast month...

continued from page 1


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the TBCSA, said it was being considered that a portion of funds collected through the TOMSA mechanism could be set aside for the trade. Mr. Smith, who is also Avis Budget Southern Africa Execu-tive: Sales, said, from a car rental perspective, it would mean more tailored and targeted campaigns. And the t ravel indust ry, the source of the tax, would benefit directly from those funds. “We can say [to operators] we have got a seasonality problem or a geographical issue…. 50 per-cent of car rental business is in

the Western Cape. We can get business into new markets.” TBCSA Corporate Communi-cations Manager, Kagiso Mosue, said the parties hoped to have the new MOU finalised by April 1, the start of SA Tourism’s new financial year, at which time more detail would be revealed. But Mr. Smith said the devel-opment was a strong indicator of a better, more effective working relationship between the private and public sectors. “For the first time ever, the government is coming to us… to fast-track business… I think it is remarkable,” he said.

British Airways ambas-sador Salama Detlefsen (pictured right) visited Mel-rose Arch in Johannesburg to snap a selfie with the pop-up art of the airline's six most romantic destina-tions, which the airline had commissioned for Val-entine’s Day. BA named London, Paris, New York, Rome, Mauritius and Vic-toria Falls as this year’s “most romantic escapes”. The work took local artists Nes Blundell and Desmer Glenn 18 hours to complete and featured internation-ally-recognised icons Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, a beach in Mauritius and Mosi-oa-Tunya – ‘the smoke that thunders’.

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EDITORIAL DIRECTORJohn Wardall

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For a stockist near you, visitwww.americantourister.co.zaor call 031 266 0620

CONGRATULATIONS to Rene Simpson, from Simpson Conferences and Travel in Cape Town, who was spotted reading TIR in Dublin. Rene wins a Lock ‘n’ Roll 55cm Spinner suitcase by American Tourister, valued at R2,999!

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Industry View

TIRED of “silly assumptions” about the cost of an overseas holiday this year, Pentravel Chief Executive Officer, Sean Hough, says there is still plenty of good value… consum-ers just need to be reminded where to book.

Not buying into the hype: why SouthAfricans can afford to travel internationally

Specific action needed to strengthen the randPRESIDENT Zuma’s State of the Nation address last month, conducted in an at-mosphere of high comedy or shocking disrespect, de-pending on your point of view, was a classic exercise in vague obfuscation. When he was finally able to stumble through his speech, there was little illumination of relevance to the travel in-dustry or, in fact, the country as a whole. It seemed for a while that it had taken the crisis in the economy and the rand for the government to finally wake up. But it became clear as the speech droned on that it was long on hot air and short on substance and detail. Talk is cheap.

There was reference to the status of parastatals, presum-ably including South African Airways; R100-million is to be made available to boost domestic tourism; overseas travel by government depart-ments and politicians is to be slashed and the size of del-egations is to be reduced; and the issue of two locations for the executive and legislature is to be reviewed “urgently”. Presumably that meant cen-tralising everything in Pre-toria, rather than sharing the wealth with Cape Town. The implications of the last item are more complicat-ed than Mr. Zuma obviously realises but, for the indus-try, would mean reduced air travel, hotel stays, car rental,

restaurant and entertainment expenditure. Whether or not the Presi-dent actually understands even the generalisations or, if he does, has any intention of fulfilling his promises is, as always, questionable. He is not going to take firm steps to reduce the cost of parliamentar ians with their gold-plated incomes and perks, including his own, nor take on the unions and the political and social danger of cutting jobs. And the parastatals? To-gether with positions at all levels of government, they are far too convenient for the rampant patronage, which is the hallmark of this admin-istration, despite breeding

the corruption and accom-modating the incompetence, which has been their finan-cial downfall. This bank-rupt mindset ‒ terming it a philosophy is conferring too much credit ‒ has destroyed so many previously viable organisations since 1994. So, SAA may well get bogged down in more navel gazing as yet another review project gets underway but flies around in circles. The country desperately needs the foreign investment necessary to create jobs and increase government reve-nue. But it is all going in the opposite direction. It is the pr ivate sector which has been keeping South Africa afloat, despite

woeful policies and interfer-ence, and no industry has been more challenged or more adaptable than the trav-el industry in being able to survive the mess. The exchange rate, affect-ed by international and do-mestic issues, has increased the challenge this year to out-bound tourism. But, even inbound tourism has failed to fully be able to benefit from what should be a major competitive advantage of a weak currency. So, forget the platitudes and empty promises. We are on our own until and unless the government produces specific action, targets and results to turn the economy around.

It is true, our rand’s free-fall has done many things. It has eroded our ability to attract foreign direct investment, vital to help grow our tepid economy, it makes importing expensive, it raises inflation and leads to higher unemployment. But what it has not done, contrary to popular belief, is cut us off at the knees to travel abroad. Since that fateful day in December when our president gave the markets a little sur-prise, South Africans have been urged to stay local next holiday because, they are told, they will be lucky if their hard-earned money gets them a peanut in a bar in New York, let alone a bottle of beer. That is an irresponsible half-truth, which disregards the fact that South Africans are, in their numbers, making use of popular package deals to cruise the Med, ski the French Alps and beach in Mauritius, among many others. Those numbers are hard to quantify without the proof of a local outbound tour-ism industry body that credibly measures exactly how many South Africans continue to travel for pleasure. Instead, international forward-bookings are a reliable indicator. As of the end of Jan-uary, sales across the travel agency industry remain bullish. How? Because savvy consumers know that there is still great value to be had on an all-inclusive holiday, compared to the price of cobbling it together, DIY online. For one, costs are fixed, sometimes at last year’s prices – as with Trafalgar – which means, no matter what happens at home, the price remains the same. Secondly, thanks to the low oil price, air travel remains relatively affordable. The other inaccuracy doing the rounds is that South Africa is so cheap, for visitors and locals. The argument, which has been supported by our Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, goes that given it is too expensive to travel

abroad, stay at home and discover your own backyard. Good idea, although, unfortu-nately, some members of the backyard are cashing in on Destination SA’s new ‘Cheap & Cheerful’ name-tag and hiking their prices, some as much as 20 percent, in an effort to offset input costs. And then there are reports about car rentals following suit. This does not afford-able travel for locals make. Reasons are that South Africa’s afford-ability is playing against us and creates a feeding frenzy among greedy suppliers. The question to ask then is, what happens when the rand recovers? Price increases over 20 percent will make us uncompetitive and we could again see inbound tourism taper off. Yes, we live in a capitalist society, where business is free to increase or decrease its prices as it sees fit. But at what cost to the country? It is likely that this practice will spread, as making a quick buck is too easy to resist. And, besides its long-term impact on Brand SA, it will also cut the wheat from the chaff with respect to who can afford to travel locally and who cannot. Which brings me back to the rand… If South Africa is too expensive and Europe or the US is also perceived to be too expen-sive, where does that leave us? An abun-dance of exceptional package deals that cost a percentage of the price of a holiday booked at the eleventh hour online is where. But, to make use of them, travellers must entrust the experts, not Google. Some things just work better in person. Take Amazon, once a pioneer of the e-book. On the back of falling global sales, it recently launched an innovative idea: a real bricks and mortar book store! I see travel in the same light. Once touted as the easiest thing to do online, the fact is, it will cost less to go to Mauritius or the Med for a week on an all-inclusive package than it will to book the trip online. Or travel at home.

Cyril Ramaphosa has been tasked with implementing the recommendations of the presidential review commission on parastatals. That is positive as it includes SAA. The problem is going to be finding a taker for partial privatisation or investors for a public/private partnership.

The weak rand has encouraged financial institutions to feed their voracious ap-petite for gouging customers. The spread between the buy and sell rates for foreign exchange, plus service charges, are better than a licence to print money.

The State of the Nation Address was conducted in a circus ring, known as par-liament. The circus master entertained us with vague promises, pointing to little relief for an outbound travel industry, desperate for a stronger rand.

@AmTouristerSA


News Digest

Cunard plans new SA sailingsTHERE has been st rong demand for Cunard’s f irst South Africa itineraries for 2016, White Star Cruise & Travel, said last month, when the Queen Elizabeth made its maiden calls to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, en route to Fremantle. The compa-ny expects additional visits to South African ports will boost agency sales in the coming months. 900 international and local passengers joined the ship in Cape Town. With capac-ity for 2,000 passengers and

1,000 crew, Cunard’s agent said the ship left South Af-rica fully occupied. Its sister ship, the Queen Victoria, is due to follow next month. “[Queen Victoria] is also arriving on her maiden voy-age here,” commented Shaun McCarthy, White Star Gen-eral Manager. The 2017 itin-eraries feature a two-ship line-up for South Africa. Mr. McCarthy said the South Af-rica sailings had performed even better than expected. “We are probably 35 to 40

percent up [on sales] com-pared to this time last year." Queen Mary 2 will have undergone a major refurbish-ment before it arrives next year. The ship is scheduled to arrive in South Africa on January 27, 2017, with the Queen Elizabeth to follow in April. The 2016 Cape Town to Perth itinerary was “great value and an unbelievable rate”, Mr. McCar thy re-marked, while “Queen Mary 2 will be literally brand new when [it] arrives in 2017. Cu-

nard is refurbishing all the colours, staterooms, adding more single rooms, and to-tally re-doing the al fresco restaurant”. Brochures are available to travel agents for the 2017 season but, Mr. McCarthy re-vealed: “It looks like Queen Mary 2 and either Queen Victoria or Elizabeth will be back in 2018. It just gives you an idea of where we [South Africa] are…”. To request a 2017 sales brochure, email: [email protected]

AVIS Rent a Car has introduced a new loyalty programme in South Africa, Avis Preferred, helping travel agents and customers to identify the premium arm of the Avis Budget Southern Africa business and make room for new value brands to be introduced in the near future. The company is also overhaul-ing its travel agent rewards pro-gramme, with new websites for each of the Avis and Budget Car Rental brands to go live in the second half of 2016. Av is P refe r red was sof t-launched to South Africa’s SME market in August 2015, explained Lance Smith, Avis Budget South-ern Africa Executive: Sales. The system is fully automated and features international ben-efits. There are three tiers ‒ Avis Preferred, Avis Preferred Plus and Avis President’s Club. Mem-ber status is determined by the number of rentals and rental spend. There is also a mobile app, through which members can view their rental history and vouchers. Avis invoices can now also be received electronically. Top-tier President’s Club perks range from guaranteed availabil-ity to additional driver benefits for every rental, free rental and upgrades. There are Preferred Loyalty collection points at major airports overseas, said Mr. Smith.

Along with the new rewards pro-gramme, at least two other Avis Budget brands are being reviewed for possible launch in South Af-rica. “Zipcar is the largest car shar-ing service in the world…,” Mr. Smith revealed. The model is such that registered card holders can collect and rent a vehicle on the spot, billed by the hour. Ve-hicles are collected and returned to pre-determined locations. There is no paperwork and rental charges are billed automatically, electronically. The biggest Zipcar club is in the US but the brand is in other markets as far afield as Europe and recently launched in Istanbul, Turkey. Barloworld, which operates the Avis Car Rental brand in southern Africa, took over the Budget Car Rental business in sub-Saharan Africa in March 2015. Payless Car Rental is the other brand being considered, said Mr. Smith. This is a deep value brand, which will target price-conscious consumers and help the company to optimise its fleet.

The Queen Elizabeth on its maiden call to Cape Town.

Avis introduces newperks, value brands

BY SARAH CORNWELL

New brands considered

foreign markets], which are in foreign currencies,” said John Ridler, spokesperson for Thompsons Holidays. Club Travel Managing Di-rector, Wally Gaynor, said he had heard rumours specific hotel chains were planning to slowly raise their prices to 30 percent higher than they are currently and insisted that the budget-conscious South African would have plenty of options for international travel if they found staying at home too expensive. “Thailand is still a firm fa-vourite. Indonesia, India and generally South East Asia are as well. We are trying to get people to look further; the rand has gained against the Brazilian real in the last 18 months and once you get out of the main tourist areas is really not expensive. Argen-tina is still cheap (if you are using the black market rate of exchange). I found Gua-temala and Nicaragua very cheap,” he said. “ Un for t u n a t e ly some members of the backyard are cashing in… and hiking their prices, some as much as 20 percent, in an effort to offset input costs,” Pentra-vel Chief Executive Officer, Sean Hough, asserted. Most leisu re ret a i lers say there has been no slow-down in forward-bookings for international travel. This was largely attributed to the availability of cost-effective international packages. “Early bird offers, new, all-inclusive resort packages, two-for-one luxury cruise fares and rand price guar-antees that shielded cus-tomers from rate increases have made international bro-chures even more appealing

... value in international travelcontinued from page 1 in 2016,” Mr. Hough said.

“To go with that, we are still getting low air fares despite tax increases. And I haven’t noticed an availability issue from airlines filling up with inbound traffic.” “The fact that we are even debating this is a worrying sign,” said Wandering Free’s National Sales and Market-ing Manager, Warren Rob-ertson. “International trips should be noticeably more expensive because of the f lights. But they aren’t. Travelling over-seas on pre-planned pack-ages can be very reasonable when compared with a trip to say, Cape Town. And this is before these supposed in-coming local price increas-es,” he said. Flight Centre Managing Director, Andrew Stark, said one potential solution is for tourism prices for locals to be uncoupled from those for international tourists. “What I would encourage is more talk around local rates ver-sus overseas rates offered to locals. Make South Africans feel special,” he maintained. Garth Wolff, Chief Execu-tive Officer of eTravel, coun-tered that the trade should not be too concerned if pric-es were going up, or if that might scare away the local buyer, as prices would only rise in line with economic principles. “In my opinion, if pric-es are genuinely increasing then it is due to increased demand,” he said. “Remem-ber how hotels struggled post the 2010 SWC (Soccer World Cup) due to an oversupply of bed nights. Perhaps now things are turning?” Speaking from a local air-line perspective Iain Meaker,

Comair Executive Manager for Commercial Distribution, said: “The rand has depreci-ated by 30 percent this year and this is bound to affect all facets of the economy either directly or indirectly. As 48 percent of our costs as an airline are based on US dollar prices, the rand devaluation has severely affected our bot-tom line. “We would ideally want to increase our prices to absorb the loss but the domestic air-line market in South Africa is very competitive and is currently over-supplied. We have made small adjustments to fares this year, closing up a few of the cheaper fare class-es during certain periods, but the competitive forces in the market would not allow us to maintain our passenger loads with such a drastic spike in prices to absorb the loss. As can be seen from our latest results, it is often the supplier that has been forced to take it on the chin.” He added other sectors, such as car rental, faced simi-lar challenges, with similar dollar-based costs. Increases in this sector looked inevita-ble this year. On local hotel prices, Mr. Meaker again refer red to market forces as the ultimate driver of price. “There may well have been a recent in-crease in international de-mand for South African ho-tels, due to the depreciation of our currency, which is jus-tification for rate increases.” He noted that, while a smaller percentage of local hotel costs would be directly affected by the dollar ex-change rate compared to an airline’s operating costs, the industry was certain to have been indirectly affected.

Pentravel chief calls for leisure reviewBY SARAH CORNWELL

PENTRAVEL Chief Execu-tive Officer, Sean Hough, responded to last month’s do-mestic rate debate with a call to keep travellers advised and a proposal for a plan to urgently determine the real size of South Africa’s leisure market. He believed public opinion was being negatively impact-ed by misinformation and “silly assumptions” reported as fact. A look into rising travel costs by a local tel-evision news programme last month, which featured one analysts’ suggestion that a stay in a youth hostel abroad was becoming a young South Africans’ best bet was, Mr. Hough commented “com-plete rubbish!” “I get annoyed that people are making these assump-tions that people are not go-ing to travel internationally. The cost to travel locally is also increasing, for various

reasons. “[But] if you are travelling independently, you had bet-ter be a very wealthy person. You cannot control the costs.Look at how the UK market travels: they go on packaged holidays,” he said. If South Africans want to continue to travel, they have got to look at a package option, espe-cially somewhere there is a fully-inclusive option.” The Western Cape is, so far this year, Pentravel’s top region for sales. KwaZulu-Natal is second, followed by Gauteng. And, although there is a more concentrated effort to push domestic tourism sales on the high street, Mr. Hough said overseas product offered more lucrative commissions. “Why are you going to sell a hotel in Sea Point for seven percent?” To grow the market “the first important factor is to measure our indust ry. It needs to be measured”.

“We are always going to be in this situation. Maybe growth is market share from other people… BSP figures are good for air [volumes]. It does not give you a reliable indication of the leisure mar-ket because it is total air. It is an indication of how we are travelling as a country. “The size of the UK cruise market is 1.6-million pas-sengers, the size of the US market is, maybe, six-mil-lion. South Africa’s is un-known… if it was, maybe it would attract the attention of the cruise companies [and] they would say, maybe it is growing 30 percent… it would give us the knowledge we need so we can report on it and respond and start to manage the outbound holiday package cruise industry. “Ideally I would prefer a totally independent body, someone we could trust with our info. I would be very happy to cooperate with that organisation.”

How would an assessment of the leisure sector help your business?Would you share your stats and figures with a neutral, third party organisation?

> Send feedback to [email protected]


News Digest

Club Med appointsnew regional MDCLUB Med has appointed Olivier Hannaert to take over from Stuart de Bourgogne as Managing Director for south-ern Africa, effective March 1. He will be based in Johan-nesburg. Mr. Hannaer t has been

with the company since 1997, when he started as a Golf GO. He became Sales Di-rector in the Netherlands in 2014. Mr. Bourgogne is to trans-fer to Japan as President and CEO. Olivier Hannaert

Pictured above: Lou-an Jordaan, from Flight Specials Stellenbosch Neelsie Travel, celebrated after winning Busabout’s recent Turkey Sail booking competition last month. She sold the most Busabout, Shamrocker and Haggis trips since October. Her prize includes an eight-day Turkey sailing for two.

Briefly.

Beachcomber Tours will switch to a paperless booking confirmation system from the middle of March unless, it said, a customer specifically requested documenta-tion in paper format.

Being a concierge is the competitive advantageHow a change in mindset is helping travel agents combat the webBY KATE ELS

THERE is no denying that online developments have impacted the t radit ional booking channels in a signif-icant way. Booking engines, travel apps, itinerary build-ers and online forums have changed the way travellers shop for their next destina-tion and, even more so, the way they book. The modern-day traveller has become self-reliant when it comes to travel, using the Internet as an information and booking portal. Agents must adapt to new and smart-er ways of working in order to compete. Global industry intelli-gence platform Skift iden-tif ied smart travel agents adopting a concierge mindset as a ‘megatrend’ in travel for 2016. It was described simply by Skift as: “Smart travel agents are evolving to bet-ter meet the rising needs of today’s traveller.” In a report that focused on the trend for this year, Skift added that travel agents had realised the transaction-al model of travel was not working as well as it used to. “Wary of being commod-itized as just another sales channel, [travel agents] are becoming increasingly fo-cused on end-to-end custom-er experience, acting in part as concierge, advisor and confidant. More emphasis is being placed on building long-term relationships.” The report was released in conjunction with internation-al luxury network Virtuoso. Within Virtuoso, advisors are given the chance to spe-cialise in a niche, gaining knowledge that will benefit their clients during the plan-

ning phases of a trip. “Virtuoso [enables] agents to thrive at a time when travel agents face intense disrup-tion from online travel agen-cies and mobile channels,” said Mat thew Upchurch, Chairman and Chief Execu-tive Officer.

Mr. Upchurch said the suc-cess of travel advisors was that they focused on creating experiences for customers, rather than just acting as a transactional booking chan-nel. “Loyalty is created on two fronts: emotional and structural. The best travel advisors deliver feelings of structure related to the trip and emotional experiences. Travellers want deeper expe-riences involving inspiration and self-discovery.” From a local perspective, the desire for an agent who is available to assist during travel is still very much pre-sent, and a good sign for the

If you are looking for ways to increase loyalty andrepeat business from your clients, follow these top tips to make sure your clients get the best service:

Sales tips

• Keep them in the loop at all times• Don’t wait until they follow up with you• Keep a record of personal details such as birthdays and places your clients have been, to brush up on when you deal with them• Confirm and check all details ahead of their trip• Provide a detailed itinerary with some extra information about the destination, even if that means looking it up on online from a reliable source• Ask for positive and negative feedback after a trip• Offer personal anecdotes from your own travels• If they are active online, browse to see what a client has been saying during their trip and get involved in the conversation

future of the industry, said Marieke Tucker, Flight Cen-tre General Manager. “Of-ten, the product sold online is not the true experience. The other challenge with on-line bookings is that you can't get hold of someone to assist when needed ‒ you have to

try and get through to a call centre and that person-to-person touch is lost.” Agents also commonly report that clients will re-turn after an online booking experience has gone awry. Nadja Louw, t ravel advi-sor at Pentravel Brooklyn, commented: “A lot of clients do not realise that taxes are sometimes only added at the end of a booking thus the price you see isn’t what you are paying until right at the end. Also there are hidden costs and fine print they may not have picked up and for these reasons a lot of clients choose to rather work with

an experienced consultant and company who only sell reliable products.” When it comes to convert-ing and keeping customers that have been tempted by booking directly online, there are definite ways to of-fer added services to ensure their loyalty, added Lucinda Tyler, Product Manager at Club Travel. For Ms. Tyler, commu-nication before, during and after any trip is key: “Clients don’t like to have to pursue their enquiries or feel like

they have been forgot ten about. Ask about any special needs or special requests, do their online check-in for them for outbound and inbound flights, and request and con-firm their seat preference.” Candice Lee Giloi, owner of Organised Traveller, spe-cialises in personal touches and believes this has made her stand out to her clients:

“I call clients, we chat on the phone, I send them remind-ers before they go on their trip, making sure they don’t forget anything, I also send Bon Voyage emails and texts to wish them well on their journey; and when they are back I follow up to see how it all went and receive feedback which I use for my clients in future.”

“The best travel advisors deliver feelings of structure related to the trip and emotional experiences.”– Matthew Upchurch, CEO Virtuoso

Kulula passengers can now earn three Avios points for every R10 spent on flights.

Cruises International has revamped its on-line ShipMates portal. cruises.co.za/shipmates


ATOUT France staged its annual roadshow recently in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Dur-ban and Cape Town. Regional Manager Héléne Bezuidenhout highlighted value-added packages to overcome the weaker rand and reported five percent growth in the number of SA visa applications. Exhibitors included Air France, JW Marriott, AC Hotels, Rail Europe and Le Boat self-catering boating holidays, along with CI Experi-ence, a specialist inbound agency and Orange, which has pre-paid SIM cards for the SA market. Pictured above (l to r): Maylis Bezuidenhoudt, Atout France; Roxane Gué-rin, CI Experience and Héloise Deparisse, Hotels AC Ambassadeur in Antibes and JW Marriott in Cannes.

Briefly.

British Airways and Ibe-ria have finalised new distribution agreements for Travelport ’s Rich Content and Branding software. Along with branded fares and an-cillary services, search functionality has re-cently been added ena-bling agents to up-sell by skipping to the next product/price point up.

Beat the currency exchange with UK, Ireland and Europe packages DESTI NATION specia l-ists remain optimistic about sales to the UK, Europe and Ireland this year, despite the rand’s weakness, reporting that enquiries for much of the region remains strong, al-though customers are taking longer to make final purchas-ing decisions. Annemarie Lexow, Sales and Market ing Manager, Travel Vision stated: “Quotes are taking longer to confirm, as customers will often con-sult online sites to ensure they are getting good deals. It is becoming more difficult to compete with online pricing these days, so service is vital to retain business.” Megan D’Arcy, Product Manager USA, Europe, Tour-ing and Cruising for kulula holidays advised that there were still good, cost-effective three-star options available in Europe. The operator is concen-trating on Topdeck coach tours for the 18 ‒ 39 year-old market and recommended Le Boat cruises as an affordable option for families or small

groups. Customers could split the cost of hiring a houseboat between them, she suggested. Cruises are another hot ticket item, due to inclusive pricing. Theresa Szejwallo, Man-aging Director for Trafalgar said the CostSaver product had tours from R1,178 per day. “Our tours include airport transfers, an expert travel di-rector, three- and four-star hotel accommodation, break-fast daily, up to half of the tour dinners and a great bal-ance of included sightseeing and free time. “Baggage handling, ho-tel charges, air-conditioned coach transport and local taxes are also included...,” she said. Helen Fraser, who has re-joined Development Promo-tions, representing Tourism Ireland, said, although the poor exchange rate could impact travel to Ireland this year, clients were still at-tracted to the destination’s warmth, friendliness, history and culture. “Bed and breakfasts offer great value for money accom-

modation and even hostels are clean, comfortable and well-run establishments in Ireland,” she added. G reg Taylor, Genera l Manager, Pure Tours and Pure Skiing, recommended St. Johann and Livigno for value-for-money ski holi-days. Operators warned against travelling during the peak periods of June, July and Au-gust, if clients wanted to save money. “A blanket sugges-tion would be to travel dur-ing April and October when prices are slightly lower, the weather is still pleasant and tourist attractions remain open,” said Ms D’Arcy. For ski breaks, Mr. Taylor suggested booking outside European school holidays. Ms. Szejwallo insisted the best time to travel to Europe was now. “Our CostSaver brochure was priced in August 2015 when the rand was 40 per-cent stronger to the euro and we have held these prices so that travellers can continue to enjoy the benefits of overseas travel without the sting of exchange rate f luctuations. Travelling in 2016 at 2015 prices cannot be underesti-mated.” Turkey, Greece and Ire-land are on Travel Vision’s list of budget-friendly des-tinations. Both Turkey and Ireland are also visa-free des-tinations for South Africans. Ms. Szejwallo added East-ern Europe to the list. “Our 14-day Highlights of Bohe-mia [tour] visits Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Re-public for R21,800 per per-son sharing. This works out

at a rate of R1,454 per person per day.” Kelly Jackson, General Manager, Busabout said trips could be tailored according to specif ic budgets. “Our flexible travel network gives you unlimited options…” She said she had not no-ticed a shift in top destina-tions due to currency weak-ness, customers were still visiting the major cities and popular destinations.

BY SARAH WHITESIDE

VisitBritain hosted a new style of training seminars in Cape Town, Durban and Jo-hannesburg last month, with presentations by Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and UKVI (UK Visas). The roadshow was joined by local suppliers, wholesalers and travel agents. Pictured above in Cape Town, team Virgin Atlantic (l to r): Marc Harding, Coastal Area Sales Executive; Liezl Gericke, Country Manager and Darrin Thomas, Marketing Manager. VisitBritain Nurture Markets Manager, Carol Maddison, pre-sented destination insights, tools and tips to help travel professionals sell more Great Britain product in 2016. “We are aware that the South African rand has devalued… but we have ways of offering quality product and services in England, Scotland and Wales that are affordable. If the agents are aware of these value propositions when offering itineraries, then they are better equipped to give the best possible advice to their clients,” she said. Pictured below (l to r): Ms. Maddison with Cape Town prizewin-ner, Sonika Troski, Carlson Wagonlit. Agents can sign-up for the tourist office’s virtual training programme at britagent.com. The programme also provides opportunities to earn extra commissions.

Regent’s new Seven Seas Explorer operates its maiden voyage from in July. The ship will remain in Europe for the majority of its inaugural season, operating 11 voyag-es in the Mediterranean. Encore Cruises, Regent’s GSA, is promoting introductory fares: 10-night Venice to Rome sailing in a Deluxe Veranda Suite, departing August 3, from US$5,799; Rome to Lisbon, August 13 – 25, from US$6,899; Monte Carlo to Athens, departing October 4, from US$3,999; 10-night Athens to Venice, October 12 – 22, from US$5,399. For any new reserva-tions made until March 10 on any Regent sailing, agents will get 18 percent commission on the commissionable portion of the fare.

Briefly.

UKVI (UK Visas) which presented at last month’s Vis-itBritain seminars, confirmed a new digital customer journey online system will be introduced in South Af-rica later this year. The process is designed to simplify the application process. The department revealed that, currently, 98 percent of all visa applications by South African passport holders are successful. Turnaround is within 15 days in 99 percent of applications. Of the 160,000 applications from southern Africa processed in Pretoria every year, 40 percent originate outside South Africa.

Pentravel High Climbers travelled to Hopfgarten, Austria with Contiki recently, the lo-cation for this year’s incentive trip. Accommodation was at the brand’s Gasthof Schö-neck chalet. Packages include breakfast and five dinners, transfers, equipment hire, a ski guide, a day-trip to Salsburg and themed party night. Ski lessons can be booked in the resort from the start of the next season. Rates for a week in January 2017 are from R13,699. Contiki currently has 7.5 percent discounts on all Europe and Britain tours for the South African market, subject to availability, until March 24. Pictured (front row, l to r): Pentravel consultants Lisa Kruger and Megan Opperman, with Contiki GM Kelly Jackson; Chantelle van Wyk; Bridget Marshall; Letitia Fourie (second row): Nicole Coetzer and Carolyn Fall, Pentravel; Contiki representative, Laura; Michelle Swanep-oel; Daniella Theron; Carla Gomes-Piroto and Calvin Gentz (third row): Samantha McDonald; Daena-Lyn Taylor; Cara Oosthuizen; Janine Woolard; Mardinell Barnard; Antoinette Stapelberg and Annolet Eybers; (back): Zelda Klue; Sandri van Wyk and Milette Kruger, Pentravel and Martin and Zach, Contiki.

Rail passes offer flexibilityONE of the highlights of ex-ploring Europe as an inde-pendent traveller is the safe-ty, comfort and reliability of the railway network. While point-to-point tick-ets can be booked online or at the station, popular rail passes are ideal for exploring the continent by train and many, at the best available prices, can only be bought before arriving in Europe. “The main benefit is that the pass gives you more flex-ibility,” said Corné Kotze, Senior Rail Consultant for Europe by Train, who said France, Switzerland, Germa-ny and Italy were currently the most popular destinations for international travellers. Although point-to-point tickets booked in advance are usually the cheapest way to complete simple journeys, clients planning to across different countries and use multiple rides will save by purchasing a rail pass. “It might still be a cheaper op-tion should you travel for more than three routings or

crossing over to multiple count r ies. [However] we might still get cheaper point-to-point tickets, so we always check to see which will work out cheapest,” he said. A key question to ask cli-ents is which countries they plan to visit; passes that cov-er all of Europe are available, but can be expensive when only a handful of countries will be visited. Cou nt r y- spec i f ic r a i l passes offer better value, while some countries also offer passes for specialised regions: for example, the BritRail London Plus pass covers the capital and sur-rounding counties, while the BritRail Scottish Freedom Pass is only valid north of the border. One-, two-, and three-country passes are also available. If clients are budgeting, take heed of peak travel pe-riods, when rail fares in Eu-rope spike. “We have our off-peak pe-riod, normally December un-til the end of February. From March it is the normal rates again,” said Mr. Kotze. He stressed that buying well in advance was an easy way to

save. Remember too that most rail passes can only be pur-chased outside of the country of travel before departure, and cannot be bought on ar-rival. Knowing the rules is also a good way to save, and over-night trains can be used by rail pass holders to extend the pass and save on a night’s accommodation. “If you get on a train af-ter 7pm at night and travel through the night to arrive af-ter 5am, without any changes during the night, then it will count as one day and not two days,” explained Mr. Kotze. “You can still travel on more trains during your arrival day.” Remember though that high-speed and overnight trains typically require a res-ervation beforehand, which is usually subject to a small reservation fee. Reservations typically open 90 days before departure. Opportunities for agents are not limited to long-dis-tance, however. VisitBritain’s trade portal allows agents to sell airport transfers and entrance tickets to popular attractions, along with the

Oyster Card. This pre-loaded travel card is essential for us-ing public transport in Lon-don. Agents can earn up to 13 percent commission and add convenience to the client’s travel planning.

BY RICHARD HOLMES

BritRail GB Passes allow unlimited train travel throughout England, Scotland and Wales but need to be purchased ahead of travel. The train journey from London to Glasgow takes about six hours. The journey to Edinburgh takes four hours and forty minutes. The pre-loaded Oyster Card (left) is another useful sales and savings tool, with cards pre-loaded with funds, allowing travellers to use the Tube, overground and bus network in London. See trade.visitbritain.com


Bidvest Car Rental aims to grow its market share BY SARAH CORNWELL

THE BIDVEST Car Rental

brand marks its first year this month. It claims a 19 percent market share and is aiming to

increase that during the bal-ance of 2016. Bidvest had already been in the car rental business for 20 years when the new iden-tity was launched last year, having previously operated the Budget franchise in the region, now operated by Bar-loworld. Paulette McGhee, Chief Executive Officer, said last month it had been “a year of making every minute count”. “Since those baby steps, we have grown so fast,” she said. “It all began as an idea. Not just an idea, a fact. “Travellers don’t have

time to hang around. When you have reached the car hire pick up point, you just want to go. So we decided to be the people who remember exactly how you feel. And do something about it… That’s why we gave all our staff running shoes; that’s why we are now celebrating our one-year birthday... and that’s why we have captured 19 percent of the car rental market.” Bidvest currently has 120 locations in southern Afri-ca, including Namibia and Botswana, including van and truck rental, Door2Door

transfers, chauffeur drive and coach charter services. The company prioritised travel agency business to achieve an immediate pres-ence in the market and has been exploring more supplier partnerships. Ms. McGhee said another significant in-volvement for 2016 would be

support of the Pink Drive, to raise awareness about breast cancer across the country. It is also working on more sponsorship agreements. “It is part of our commit-ment to being a South Af-rican brand and company that wants to make Mzansi count,” she said.

Paulette McGhee

First Car Rental has new strategic partnerFIRST Car Rental has en-tered into a partnership with Fly Blue Crane, which will boost business to tradition-ally under-served cities. Fly Blue Crane currently operates from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Bloemfon-tein and Kimberley. The partners said the ar-rangement would introduce

Car rental rates to rise in 2016BY RICHARD HOLMES

WITH the volatile rand driv-ing up input costs, car rental rates look set to rise across the board this year. “We anticipate prices to increase, based on the expo-nential increases in our cost base,” said Martin Lydall, Chief Commercial Officer, Europcar. “The full increase in costs will not be passed directly to the customer, but due to the depreciation of the rand, price increases of around 10 percent are likely this year.”

With the f luctuating cost of new vehicles a major cost factor for rental companies, “ideally this industry should be looking at double digit in-creases in the coming months to ensure we are able to pro-vide the service standards required to remain competi-tive in this market,” added Gaynor Von Loggenburg, Sales and Marketing Direc-tor, Bidvest Car Rental. Covering escalating costs while offering value to cus-tomers is a balancing act. In this crowded market-place “we hope to be able

to increase our rental rates yet remain competitive while covering increasing costs,” said Sherl Camera, General Manager Business Devel-opment, Hertz Rent a Car. “Price increases are not the only way though, we are also constantly striving to imple-ment more and more efficient processes and procedures to contain costs.” With rates on the r ise, clients are becoming more price-conscious and travel behaviour is adapting to suit economic reality. “Rates have always been an important driver and even more so today. People are planning better, travelling for fewer days and two or three persons may share a vehicle,” said Ms. Von Loggenburg. “Customers in the corporate market are moving towards some options normally re-served for the leisure mar-kets, such as free mileage.” While r ising rates may dent demand, the past year has delivered good business for most rental agencies. “The leisure and replace-ment sec tor s saw good growth towards the end of last year, dr iven through highly competitive pricing and a upturn in the air pas-senger numbers,” added Mr. Lydall. The dropping rand may be hiking the cost of replace-

ment vehicles, but it has also proven a boon for some sec-tors of the rental industry. Hertz Rent-a-Car has seen “inbound and local leisure growth driven in the main by the weakness of the rand”, according to Ms. Camera. Bidvest Car Rental, which underwent a major rebrand-ing exercise in 2015, also en-joyed strong demand, with “growth in our corporate, short term lease and inter-national sectors,” added Ms. Von Loggenburg. “[We] are expecting this to continue as we move to-wards our financial year-end in June.” While the industry re-mains bullish, the forecasts are not as encouraging as they could have been. Inter nat ional inbound le isu re business , wh ich achieved double-digit growth in 2013/14, managed only three or four percent last year, a time “when every-one said it should have been spectacular”, Lance Smith, Executive: Sales, Avis Budg-et Rent a Car South Africa, commented last month. Corporate business had also weakened last year, he said, but “government busi-ness is strong. There is defi-nitely a drop in rental classes and the type of car ‒ as with hotels. But activity has been good…”

highly competitive car rental rates for Fly Blue Crane pas-sengers. The airline’s strategy is to stimulate demand in under-developed markets and those which had already had ca-pacity reduced. The carrier has targeted corporate cus-tomers and travel managers, as well as leisure travellers, with what it refers to as its hybrid business model, high frequencies and upfront dis-counts for TMCs and busi-ness travellers. Theunis Potgieter, Fly Blue Crane’s Chief Com-mercial Officer, said: “Our partnership with First Car Rental makes perfect busi-ness sense. Our customers will benefit from better car rental rates… It is a great match of brand values as both airline and car hire compa-ny... are able to make quick, autonomous corporate deci-

sions.” “[It] is an exciting part-nership for First Car Rental, as it means we will be able to reach a captive, premium audience of predominantly corporate customers in a tar-geted region,” commented Melissa Storey, Executive

Head: Strategy, Development and Marketing. “First Car Rental has a strong operational presence and an established customer base in Bloemfontein and Kimberley, which will now also be shared with Fly Blue Crane.”Melissa Storey

Rental companies registergrowth in competitive sectors

Briefly.

Agencies and TMCs connected to the Sabre Travel Net-work can now book Europcar South Africa inventory, under the supplier code IM.

BY RICHARD HOLMES

WITH rates set to rise and cor porate demand under pressure, the car rental mar-ket is more competitive than ever. Key to the continued success of the major brands has been an ability to cater to all sectors, tailoring products and services for time-pressed corporate clients as well as price-sensitive leisure travel-lers. “Europcar is focused on all car rental markets and balancing our channel mix between all key channels within the market segments and has tailored solutions and products for each,” said Mar-tin Lydall, Chief Commercial Officer. “Each channel offers a different set of benefits and challenges, which need to be met by careful operational and commercial planning.” Catering to a variety of markets is key for demand and to ensure the efficient use of rental stock. Leisure and corporate demand surg-es at different stages of the week, so a product catering to a range of sectors ensures vehicles are fully utilised. “Bidvest Car Rental re-ceives support from all sec-

tors and this is extremely important as the various sec-tors require vehicles at dif-ferent periods, enabling us to spread the usage of our fleet over seven days and not simply peak in the middle of the week,” explained Gaynor Von Loggenburg, Sales and Marketing Director. With most operators offer-ing similar products, the key differences are in the cus-tomer experience and added value. “We all offer similar prod-ucts according to market de-mands, but it is when you are willing to interact with your customer to find what they may or may not need or require, that you are able to offer a service that supports [the customer],” added Ms. Von Loggenburg. “Customer service differ-entiators are a focus in each segment and vary depending on the customer’s needs and wants,” said Mr. Lydall. “In the corporate and govern-ment space, where speed of service is imperative, Europ-car offers the industry lead-ing Ready Service.” The Ready Service allows customers to skip the rental counter queue and, by simply

presenting their ID, can be issued with keys in seconds. “In cer t a in segments , back-end technological fa-cilities assist in positioning us as the brand of choice,” added Mr. Lydall. “In other channels products such as our Drive Club loyalty pro-gramme, our Ready Service or Business Connect, our products are tailored to offer different segments a value proposition that meets their specific needs.” That value could be fast-track rentals, point-to-point transfers, or complimentary upgrades for repeat custom-ers. Loyalty programmes are

also a key driver of repeat business, with most major rental brands offering airline affiliations for earning fre-quent flyer miles. Corporate customers are also cognisant of considera-tions beyond price and perks. “Pricing is a big part of any purchasing decision, however, we are seeing more of an emphasis being placed on security of information, the env i ron ment , speed and accuracy of processing transactions, BBBEE level and customer service rating scores being added as key decision-making criteria,” added Mr. Lydall.

Inbound leisure business is expected to show strong growth this year, providing a major boost for the leisure car rental business. However, analysts warn, there is still ground to make up, with visitor numbers down 6.8 percent, according to a recent review of Statistics South Africa’s Tourism and Migration data for 2015 by research firm Grant Thornton. Director: Advisory Ser-vices, Lee-Anne Bac, said economic and social issues, coupled with immigration amendments, had resulted in a “tumultuous” 2015 but a recovery in the final quarter of the year helped save South Africa. “Significantly im-proved statistics and data was recorded. Much of this is behind us… Recent changes to travel laws and the sheer nature of this industry will hopefully help it rebound from its current decline…,” she said.

Photo: SA Tourism

Hertz plans to launch a new emergency medical re-sponse service in South Africa, the Hertz Emergency Rescue Operation (HERO). Hertz customers will have access to Helivac Assist, medical transportation and emergency medical response in the event of an ac-cident. HERO will be available in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Shirleen Greenwood, National Sales Manager Digital Channels and CRM at Avis with Lance Smith, Executive: Sales. The company has launched a new loyalty pro-gramme in South Africa, with more incentives for agents on the way (details on page 8).


Know before you go:Waivers, no-show fees and tips for cross-border travel

Customers need to establish what exactly is covered by their personal or company insurance policy or credit card as this can differ wide-ly, said Melissa Storey, Executive Head: Strategy, Development & Marketing, First Car Rental. South African car hire compa-

nies do not deal in insurance but have waivers. “They are not au-thorised financial service provid-ers,” explained Ms. Storey. “This is an important difference, because many renters are under the illusion that they are purchasing insurance that will cover them for anything

and everything...” Responsibility waivers are legal, compulsory agreements between the car hire firm and renters and generally limit the claim against a renter in the event of loss or dam-age, she said. “The majority of First Car Rental’s daily rental packages

include all the waivers, such as theft protection, collision dam-age waivers and personal accident benefit or similar. In the case of corporate clients, many have their own insurance in place... First Car Rental offers these customers an own-cover rate option.”

Also important to note, said Ms. Storey: “ In the case of gross negligence, responsibil-ity waivers are not honoured by car rental companies… [from] driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal substances or not adhering to traffic, road and driving regulations, etc… If found to be grossly negligent, the customer will be held liable for the full amount of damage. If the driver is found to not be at fault, that driver would only be responsible for paying the renter’s responsibility amount...” Hertz Rent a Car has two choices, including a standard waiver, where the rate is less but, in the event of an accident or damage, the responsibility amount would be higher. With super waivers, the rate per day is higher but the responsibil-ity amount if lower. “There are many corporate accounts that choose to self-insure,” com-mented Ca sey-Lee Taylor, Planning Manager. Corporate contracted rates, she added, are typically valid for one year. Optional waivers for Europcar bookings include tyre and wind-screen cover. When it comes to waivers, the profile of the corporate cus-tomer compared to the aver-age leisure traveller “definitely differs” remarked Gaynor Von Loggenburg, Bidvest Car Rental. Customers can assess their risk exposure ahead of travel. “The leisure market is gener-ally offered rate packages that include standard waiver options for both collision and theft, waivers that limit their risk in the event of an incident. A further top-up is offered that slightly increases the daily rate but dras-tically reduces the liability,” she added.

Ms. Von Loggenburg explained: “In these instances, no waivers are charged and the full cost of damage is recovered from the company. They are also able to select either standard or super waiver options, which will then limit their liability.” Mellindree Narayanasami, Tempest Car Hire Marketing Manager, commented: “The leisure market would elect ei-ther the standard or super cov-er options – these options are generally packaged with free kilometres and include various additional charges to get an overall view of the rental price. “Corporate customers have the option to opt for the stand-ard or super cover products, al-ternatively, they can decide to self-insure… In this instance, the rental company would request a certified letter from the insurer stating the value they will be covering. Customer needs vary depending on the maturity of their travel departments, the length of relationship with the car rental supplier and what the car rental vehicles are used for.”

Some customers willopt to self insure

IN the first of a two-part series on booking procedures and optional inclusions, insiders from the car rental sector talk us through waivers to include, if and when no-show fees are applied and cross-border booking procedures...o

ne


News Digest

Air Mauritius awardsrecognise trade supportINDUSTRY leaders attended Air Mauritius’ annual travel industry awards in Johan-nesburg last month, under the theme ‘Dreams’. Carla da Silva, Regional Manager: Africa and Latin America, said sales revenue had totalled R350-million between April 2015 and Jan-uary this year, a six percent increase, and credited indus-try support. “The current economic climate in South Afr ica, combined with a weaker rand, has led to increased volatility and subsequently less value for the consumer. However, all our winners… have managed to achieve fantastic sales volumes and good revenues,” Ms. Da Silva remarked.

Arnaud Martin, Chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Board, said South Afr ican tour ist numbers reached their highest level to date in 2015, with 101,000 visitors. South Africa is the fourth largest tourist market for Mauritius and, Mr. Ar-naud said, supported the is-land through the trying world economic crisis. “Forward bookings for 2016 are look-ing strong and a 14 percent growth in tourists to Mauri-tius was reported in January 2016,” he added. Top performer categories for Namibia and Botswana were included for the first time, with Trip Travel, AT & T Travel and Skyways Travel receiving awards. Ms. Da Silva said corpo-rate bookings had shown the most growth during 2015.

She specifically recognised top committed-seat support-ers, who had helped address the problem of low season yields. Beachcomber was named Top Performers of the Year, followed by Flight Centre, The Holiday Factory, Cul-linan Outbound; Club Travel; BidTravel; Travelstart; Club Med; World Leisure Holi-days and Tourvest. Te r r y Mu n ro, Beach-comber Managing Director, praised the partnership with the airline and said service levels and sales-friendly ini-tiatives had helped South Af-rican operators develop the Mauritius market. He warned 2016 was likely to be a tough year but that Beachcomber had maintained strong sales growth to date and was posi-tive about future progress.

WLH expands workshop programme

BY SARAH WHITESIDE

BY SARAH WHITESIDE

WORLD Leisure Holidays held workshops in Johannes-burg, Durban and Cape Town last month. Cathie Bester, National Sales Manager, said the format had been struc-tured differently this year “to give all of our partners a chance to participate”. WLH has recently grown its product range to add new destinations including Réun-ion, Seychelles, Abu Dhabi and Mozambique. “This year’s workshops

Pictured at the Johan-nesburg event (l to r): Les-ley Smith, World Leisure Holidays Marketing Man-ager; Juan Nel, Sales and Marketing Manager, Dia-monds Hotels and Resorts and Cheryl Wiltshire, WLH Reservations Manager.

are aimed at communicat-ing the message of our wider product range to our trade partners and encouraging them to approach World Lei-sure for enquiries to more destinations than just Mau-ritius,” said Ms. Bester. She said the attendance and re-sponse from agents had been very positive. Despite cur rency con-cerns, Ms. Bester predicted

a “tough but good” 2016 and said “it has already started with an absolute bang”. Agents were encouraged to sign up and use its online booking engine. Functional-ity currently only supports its Mauritius portfolio. To avoid any base rate adjust-ments and encourage sales, Ms. Bester recommended customers pay for as much as possible ahead of departure.

Travelstart to expand in Africa following MTN partnershipBY SARAH CORNWELL

TRAVELSTART is imple-menting its strategy to grow market share in Africa and leverage its new commercial partnership, which it says will accelerate product de-velopment and innovation. The online travel agent has secured US$40-million in funding through an agree-ment with MTN and Ama-deus Capital Partners, a UK-based investment company. There was some initial confusion and upset in the industry regarding the fund-ing, conceded Stephan Ek-bergh, Travelstart Founder and Chief Executive Officer, as some had mistakenly con-fused its new partner with the

GDS of the same name. Mr. Ekbergh, has joined Travelstart’s newly-formed board of directors, alongside Andrea Traversone f rom Amadeus Capital Partners. He said developments would now happen quickly. “Travelstart’s goal has al-ways been to put people in charge of their own travel arrangements, to help them save time and money, while receiving excellent customer service. This capital gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategi-cally… [to] innovate rapidly and deliver on our vision in more countries.” More than two-million monthly users in 16 coun-tries use the platform to book

flights, hotels and cars glob-ally. Herman Singh, MTN Group Chief Digital Officer, commented MTN’s invest-ment “strongly complements ex is t i ng invest ments i n online and e-commerce in retail, marketplaces, classi-fieds and travel”. New functionality is on the cards, including mobile check-in. “… Cool features we don’t do today,” said Mr. Ekbergh. The company’s Flapp app, which allows us-ers to book flights on single popular “commuter” routes instantly, will be revamped and the view is that long-haul routes and more booking functionality could be added. “We want to use both their customer database and ours

to push both our products, services and fares,” said Mr. Ekbergh, emphasising the potential to capitalise on the size of MTN’s existing cus-tomer base. There will be a co-branded marketing drive and, within weeks, it is envisioned that MTN subscribers will be able to download and use the Travelstart mobile booking app for free. The partners are also to review having Travel-start booking kiosks in MTN retail outlets. Currently, 30 percent of Travelstart flights are booked via a mobile device. But “broadband costs are very high” in Africa “and service poor” Mr. Ekbergh remarked. “Business t ravel is big news in Africa,” he com-mented and sa id l i nea r services and other new ac-quisitions would also be con-sidered. Innovative payment so-lutions have been a priority for the business since its in-ception in South Africa ten

years ago. Cash-on-delivery options have even been intro-duced in certain other mar-kets in Africa. “We f lew under the ra-dar for years,” remarked Mr. Ekbergh, who described an increasingly competitive lo-cal market, aggravated by shrinking growth. “A few things we don’t like, is that people still tend to think they can get things cheaper on the high street… Since the day we started here, I think we have significantly lowered the prices for every-body in South Africa because high street agencies used to have this seven to 15 per-cent mark-up on their flight tickets… We completely de-stroyed that. Now they can’t [mark-up] because people can go online and compare on our website.” As for the future of the high street retail business: “The question is: if you have 100 percent market share to-day, what is it going to be in ten years?… That pie is shrinking every day. Con-

sumers, they are get t ing smar ter and smar ter,” he said. Travelstart’s selling-from-home opportunity, ticket-ing model neXt, is to be in-troduced into new markets alongside the primary Trav-elstart brand. “Technology is going to change everybody’s lives. If you want to play even a tiny role in that, you need to be very, very good… Maybe then you should open some bespoke service for people who really want to sit and talk… who don’t have time to do it online. There will al-ways be those people around. But that piece is get t ing smaller and smaller. “… It is about knowing your customers and [be-coming] much smarter in extracting the relevant in-formation… That is why we needed [a partner with] a lot of money. It is like painting the Mona Lisa on a stamp. [Travelstart] needs to look equally good on the small screen.”

by John Wardall

Avoid getting thrown in the pond at Giverny

continued on page 20

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TIR Southern Africa • March 2016 19

Personally Speaking

iscovering a client’s hobbies and interests is a sure way of being able to add value to the advice

for a trip and often earn incremental com-missions. I was reminded of that during attend-ance at this year’s UCT summer school. A series of lectures by the hugely knowledge-able and engaging Ian Aaronson, a pae-diatric surgeon and Emeritus Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston was the catalyst. He is a physician but also a very tal-ented lecturer in a very different field. You wouldn’t catch me any closer than Charles-ton to medical lectures, but these were on art – Monet and the impressionists, Picasso and the Cubist experiment, Salvador Dali and the surrealists, Kandinsky and abstrac-tion and George Grosz, Otto Dix and the chaos of Weimar Germany. I like nothing more than spending time in galleries when I am on holiday but the prof made me feel like what I am, an art ignoramus. However, how the convergence of special interest and travel can provide extraordinary fulfilment and enjoyment came to me very strongly when he talked about Monet’s house and famous garden at Giverny and the breathtaking lily pond he created and later painted in his renowned water lily series. After visiting Giverny, walking around the stunning gardens and nearly getting thrown in the pond by the curator for pulling a silly prank on a friend I was travelling with, who was doing a radio interview. It caused him to collapse in uncontrollable laughter and be unable to carry on. But I couldn’t wait to visit the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, where two specially-built, oval rooms were constructed specifically to display eight giant paintings of the water lilies, the Nym-phéas, each one two metres high. That visit happened some years later, in 2006, after the museum had completed a six year renovation, which took place around the paintings, which could not be removed from the walls because they would have been damaged. There are many of Monet’s water lily paintings in galleries around the world, a bit of an obsession to see them in other cities, but nothing can match these ones in Paris. I am never short of excuses to visit Paris but don’t let your clients go without insist-ing they experience the water lilies.

Another lecture I had looked forward to this

year was on the state of the media and the threat to freedom of expression, journalism and comment by overt and more insidious, opaque control by the ANC government. It was given by Anton Harber, the Cax-ton Professor of Journalism at Wits and Chairman of the Freedom of Expression Institute. It was a pretty ordinary and unilluminat-ing presentation, with no great insights or new information, no reference to the awful, timid, PC-inspired self-censorship or the international scene and we all know the mindset of those in power anyway. If this was an example of opposition to the assault on freedom of expression in South Africa, it needs a new set of false teeth. Like him or not, the continuing contro-versy over the pronouncements by Donald Trump in the US primaries ignores what I think is the most important aspect. It isn’t what he says, but his freedom to be able to say it, no matter how offensive or misguided. It proves to me my assertion that the United States is the last bastion of free speech. If he said some of the things he main-tains or encourages in the UK or South Africa, P.C. Plod would be kicking his door down at two o’clock in the morning and dragging him off to pokey. As long as he isn’t inciting violence or criminal acts, he is free to say whatever he likes. That is an overwhelmingly important element of a free society, which holds tyranny at bay in a world where individual freedoms are under threat everywhere, including here and all over Europe. This is hardly the place for a movie re-view but I do have to commend Spotlight, which illustrates the exposure of a coverup in the Catholic church by the Boston Globe Spotlight investigative team. The most effective of these teams was probably the London Sunday Times Insight team of the 1960s, which blew open the Philby spy scandal, the thalidomide tragedy, parts of the Profumo affair, which brought down the MacMillan government and many other examples. The incredibly important work done by these teams, which might work on a critical exposé for as long as two years, has sadly been decimated by slashed editorial budgets, brought on by declining newspa-per revenues, the internet and politically correct intervention by governments and the courts. It is a serious blow to people’s right to know and the exposure of nefarious activi-ties at all levels of society. Amateur blog-gers, I’m afraid, do not fill the void.

The British parliament, wasting hours and looking absurd, debating whether or not to ban The Donald from the UK would have done justice to Monty Python. The irony of despots from the most repressive regimes in the world regularly being welcomed and entertained at Buck-ingham Palace seems to have passed right over their heads.

I’m pleased I got it wrong when I said Ox-ford’s Oriel College would probably cave in to the South African-led Rhodes Must Fall rabble. Disappointingly, however, the decision to keep Rhodes’ statue had nothing to do with principle and everything to do with money. The announced six month review pend-ing a decision was cut short when outraged donors, mainly former alumni, threatened to cut off donations. One reportedly threatened to remove the college from his will, in which he had bequeathed £100 mil-lion. The college would have gone broke but the ridiculous, revisionist, subsidised South African students would have been proud. In case anybody hadn’t noticed, Western society, values and culture are unravel-ling faster than the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And the Romans are at it again. It boggles the mind that city fathers in Rome recently covered up naked statues in a museum so as not to offend the visiting despotic leader of Iran. He must have been delightedly uttering Julius Caesar’s immortal words: vent, vidi, vici! For some reason I have never fathomed, the same words appeared below the crest, which used to be on packets of Marlboro cigarettes. Maybe it is symbolic of Western society going up in smoke. A sorry state of affairs when you con-sider that Western attributes have been responsible for nearly all intellectual, moral, technical and scientific progress in the modern world. Without that contribution, much of the rest of the world would still be striving towards the Dark Ages.

The proclivity of too many businesses in all fields to gouge customers at any opportu-nity has been subscribed to by a number of domestic tourism suppliers, who have taken advantage of the rand collapse to whack up prices, particularly penalising the local market. It just shows the disdain suppliers of so many overpriced products have for South African travellers. They will deserve to feel the chill when international markets start to move else-where. One advantage for travel agents is that this greed highlights the value still to be found in many overseas packages.

At least Home Affairs has started the pro-cess of sorting out its immigration fiasco, which has caused so much damage. It involved the preening, super-touchy minister swallowing his unearned pride, even though he has been noticeably invisible during the climbdown, unlike his front-and-centre performance, displaying his impressive collection of silk ties and designer suits, during the introduction of the misguided regulations. Nobody ever accused ANC ministers of accountability.

Wine writers drool even more pretentious nonsense than travel writers and I take their critiques with as much of a pinch of salt as reviews in the car magazines. If I like something – or not, I like it – or not, no matter what the reviews say. But a description in this year’s Platter’s Wine Guide, which Santa dropped in my Christmas stocking, really took the cake. It described a cabernet sauvignon as having “nervous herbaceous nuances” and another of “missing nervous edginess”, for goodness sake. I’m awarding it my first Pseuds’ Sandals prize for 2016. As a real writer in the London Times wrote a few years ago: “Don’t they make wine that tastes of grapes anymore?”

I have a few French francs, Italian lira and German marks, which ran out of time to exchange them for euros years ago. But,

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you never know, the euro may bite the dust and I’ll be back in business. I don’t have any faint illusions over my trillion dollar Zim banknotes, however. When that currency was finally ditched in 2009, they were only useful for lighting the fire anyway. The currency of choice in Zim these days, certainly amongst the Mugger and his coterie, is the yuan, although I’m not so sure the local populace is as enthusiastic. But, with the state of the rand and our own version of Kim Jong Un’s obsession with anything un-Western – unless it is designer suits, private jets and multi-million dollar kickbacks – I’m stocking up on yuan and roubles so I might be able to pay for a couple of units of electricity and litres of water in the not-too-distant future.

With the Abu Dhabi route a historical anomaly, it seems SAA’s international strategy is in turmoil again. The fickle finger of failure on the route had already been pointed at former commercial chief Sylvain Bosc, who the airline’s dopey directors claimed had fudged the numbers on the route evaluation, costing the company R400-million. Somehow I doubt that. The purported average load factor of 40 percent sounds more like a failure of implementation, when the Gulf carriers do so much better on the routes to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha. Traditionally, airlines have a significant advantage in their home markets and there are surely many more South Africans than Gulf nationals using those services. The problem can only have been con-nections over Abu Dhabi and a lack of origi-nating business in foreign markets accruing

We look at sales and earning opportunities in the Cruises feature and shop for SA’s best-loved family getaways in the Kids & Family Travel feature.

In the next issue of Travel Industry Review


Avoid getting thrownin the pond at Giverny

News Digest

to SAA. So, whose fault is that?

The leadership of the US is something which impacts us all, so the primaries and caucuses leading to the selection of presi-dential candidates have been interesting but depressingly predictable. The only one who isn’t predictable is Donald Trump. Despite the campaign of the over-whelmingly left-leaning media to demon-ise the Republicans, clearly proving that the left is unable to tolerate opposing views, the Democratic candidates worry me more. The brazenly disingenuous and deceitful Hillary Clinton and looney-left picture of senility Bernie Sanders spent most of their debate prior to the South Carolina primary telling voters how awful America is and blaming the Republicans. Hang on a minute, Barack Obama, a Democrat, is nearing the end of his second term, admittedly as one of the most inde-cisive, inept presidents ever, so what has he done to stop America being so awful? At least Donald Trump’s message is the positive promise of making America “great again”. A surprise may be in store, however. Slippery Hillary’s infractions in the top secret email issue are much, much more serious than generally reported and she is under investigation for dodgy financial shenanigans involving the dubious Clinton Foundation and conflict of interest when she was Secretary of State. We haven’t heard the last of this and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was forced to withdraw from the leadership race unless, of course, there is another cover-up.

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And then we have the Zoomer’s State of the Nation Address. Lots of platitudes, little detail and an intro full of the obses-sion with race in our supposedly non-racial democracy. Both words frequently seem inappropriate. I heard nothing about cutting the bloated, incompetent public sector and its non-stop increases and unearned bonuses.

Politics trumps economics every time. Junk status looms and this was too little too late. The Finance Minister toed the party line and enthused. It’s distressing how most of these politicians lack a critical part of the male anatomy. But he was still to give his budget speech as I write this. It’s over to you, Pravin.

79141 TIR 192x280.indd 1 2016/02/18 9:18 AM

Tintswalo Atlantic, Hout BayHotel Check

85_Accommodation

Overall rating: 86/100

75_Facilities

100_Location

90_Service

90_Attitude85_Food

80_Value x2

TINTSWALO Atlantic has reopened after a major rebuilding programme, following the devastating fire, which swept through the Cape Peninsula and the property in March 2015. In January, the management reported a sell-out first season, with only limited availability remaining in February and March. 60 percent of bookings have been domestic. It is the only private lodge in the Table Mountain National Park and oc-cupies a spectacular location overlooking Hout Bay and the Sentinel. The location, ac-commodation, level of service and renowned cuisine are drawcards for the high-end market at home and abroad, where the property has earned an enviable reputation and loyal following. Dinner was multiple courses, served on the deck that overhangs the Atlantic. Remains of the milkwood trees that were such a feature, have been repurposed. Some of the wood has been reclaimed and used in the bar. Suites are strung out along wooden walkways, with private balconies. Tintswalo’s away-from-it-all location is ideal for couples and accommodates families with an interleading arrangement. Not a budget getaway but highly recommended for a special occasion.

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