INTERVIEW SUN INTERNATIONAL


FIONA MALAN In Person with...


Fiona Malan, Sun International's UK country manager, explains how the company keeps its African roots front of mind and reaffirms the importance of courting travel agents


FIONA MALAN UK country manager Sun international


Describe your job role and main responsibilities. I am the UK and Ireland country manager for Sun International. My role involves management of a small offshore marketing team; our main objective is to realise our fair share of the long haul UK market to Southern Africa in terms of individual travellers as well as business and incentive travel.


What kind of a year is Sun International having and what challenges do you feel await in 2012? In terms of the UK market, Sun International is experiencing another tough year. This is a challenging climate, with economic factors and airlift taxation making Southern Africa less competitive globally. But saying that, forward bookings for 2012 are looking better and the pick-up we saw in August was well above this time last year. Buying patterns for individuals have changed over the past two years but the short leads provide more of an opportunity than ever. If the UK can escape any further economic contraction, we would hope to be in a position to enjoy some new growth as we move into 2012.


What makes Sun International unique when it comes to its line-up of African properties? I would say it comes down to both location and the delivery of a genuine African experience. We are a truly African company and


have been operating beautiful hotels and resorts in Southern Africa for decades. We have always aimed to secure the very best locations; we want our guests to be right at the heart of everything that is great about a city or places of natural beauty. Certainly we command the best


address in Cape Town, with every room having unspoilt views of Table Mountain or the bay across to Robben Island; the magnificent Palace of The Lost City is in the cradle of the Pilanesberg Mountains,


one of the few place to do a hot air balloon safari in South Africa; and the Royal Livingstone (pictured) is set on the banks of the Zambezi river in Zambia, where you can see and feel the spray of Victoria Falls from the sun deck. The teams in our hotels work tirelessly


to achieve and deliver excellence. We mirror this commitment to excellence in the local communities by looking after the local heritage and enhancing the lives of the people who come into contact with Sun International through our environmental and community projects.


How well do you feel the UK trade, particularly travel agents, knows the Sun International properties? We have been marketing to the UK trade since the 1980s so most travel agents are very familiar with Sun International. It will always be challenging to deliver the magic of Africa and our brand to a sales team on a wintry English morning in a boardroom in, say, London or Manchester so it’s important that someone like Zoe Ovens, our dedicated leisure marketing manager, has strong relationships and is a genuine and passionate brand ambassador.


How important are travel agents to your UK leisure business? Travel agents are still vital to us. The model in terms of distribution will evolve and change in some ways but we value and rely on the travel agents as the main source of our FIT business.


What do you do to ensure agents really know how to sell Sun International? Training is essential and we dedicate a lot of Zoe’s time to this. We fit in with the needs of our partners and so we sometimes have specific months which seem to involve non-stop training. In August, for example, we carried out training with five operators including Virgin Holidays, Tui H&J, Thomas Cook, Bailey Robinson and Trailfinders. We work together with the DMCs to make sure that everyone is constantly updated on product knowledge and special offers.


“It will always be challenging to deliver the magic of Africa and our brand to a sales team on a wintry English morning"


Do you have any fam trips planned? Yes, In November we will take two FIT fam trips to South Africa, taking in The Table Bay in Cape Town and The Palace of the Lost City in Sun City. The top sellers who come along on this trip will without doubt have an experience they will never forget. Fam trips are by far the most effective way of sharing the magic of Sun International and passing on the passion of the brand to the sales floor.


Do you have any trade initiatives – workshops, road shows, online training, etc. – planned for agents? Yes. We will be taking part in South Africa Tourism training workshops in October and November. We are also hoping to launch an online training platform before WTM in an effort to reach a wider audience of agents and help them with their knowledge and confidence in selling Sun International. We take part in trade academy workshops in South Africa and work hand in hand with the operators to


deliver experiential training as much as possible. Sometimes this can be as simple as an industry rate for an agent looking to book their own personal holiday – this instantly creates an ambassador for Sun International.


What’s your idea of the perfect African holiday? I was born in South Africa and since joining Sun International I have developed a new love for Zambia – so it would have to be a twin-centre African trip involving both. If I was to name a specific experience it


would be the high tea pairing at the Table Bay in Cape Town: the pastry chef pairs delicious delicate cakes and treats with complimentary tea selections. In Zambia it would be the water taxi


transfer, on the mighty Zambezi River, to the Royal Livingstone Hotel, passing hippo and elephant along the way, followed by iced tea and gin and tonics on the sun deck watching the spray from Victoria Falls!


www.sellinglonghaul.com • October 2011 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68