NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association held its 24th annual awards last week. Amie Keeley reports from Glasgow
Jet2’s Nikki Porter (second left), Helen
Parry and Alan Cross collect an award,
flanked by Alan Glen,
SPAA, and Stuart Leven, Royal Caribbean
SPAA hails Jet2, MacPhee at awards
Scotland’s top-performing agents and suppliers were honoured at the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association 24th annual awards ceremony in Glasgow last week.
The event was hosted by SuperBreak’s Graham Balmforth, with help from Love to Travel owner Joanne Dooey and Travel Weekly Group managing director Stuart Parish. Six-hundred people attended the ceremony, held at the city’s Doubletree Hilton. Former SPAA president Roddie MacPhee received the lifetime achievement award – his second honour of the year having won
“Roddie is one of those understated and unassuming chaps – a great character”
Travel Weekly’s Outstanding Contribution to the Industry award at the Agent Achievement Awards in July. Stewart Travel and Glen Travel
were among the winning agencies, while Royal Caribbean and SuperBreak took home gongs in the supplier categories. But it was Jet2 which picked up the most awards, winning four in total across its Jet2holidays, Jet2CityBreaks and
Jet2.com brands. SPAA president Alan Glen said the number of votes received from agents and suppliers had more than doubled this year compared with last following the introduction of electronic voting. “This event is the recognition
Alan Glen (left) and Roddie MacPhee
of all the hard work among Scotland’s agents,” he said. “We have a very close-knit community. We’re competitors but we all know each other and everyone is pleased
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travelweekly.co.uk 10 November 2016
to see their peers succeed.” Commenting on MacPhee’s
honour, Glen said: “He’s one of those understated and unassuming chaps, a great character in the industry. It’s not just his lengthy service, it’s the
work that he has done at Abta and the SPAA, and he’s not afraid to say what he thinks.” For the full list of SPAA winners
visit
travelweekly.co.uk. › More photos from SPAA Awards
in next week’s Travel Weekly
Glen seeks closer ties with tourist boards As well as introducing
The president of the SPAA called for more tourist boards to work with the organisation. Alan Glen said he would
like to see the association and tourism authorities team up more often for events. He said tourist boards often seemed unaware the SPAA hosts events with opportunities for suppliers to attend. “We are looking for tourist
boards to work with us because they will complement the operators and the airlines we already work with,” Glen said. “We want to see a more co-
ordinated approach with what they do with us. So the message is ‘we’re open for business’.”
electronic voting at its awards, the association’s decision to move the date of its annual dinner for the first time in 86 years in 2017 was among the changes brought in following a “root and branch review” of the SPAA earlier this year. The annual dinner is usually
held at the end of February but next year will take place on March 2 to avoid clashing with the Business Travel Show. “It’s about how we can
improve and tweak our events, looking at why we do things the way we do,” Glen said. “The electronic voting, for example, has been a tremendous success.”
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