Travel News July/August 2022
National Travel Agent Day Returns This July
INTREPID Travel is bringing back National Travel Agent Day for its third year on Friday 22 July. Intrepid founded National Travel Agent Day in 2020 to recognise and celebrate the valuable role of agents during some of the toughest times our industry has seen. NTAD takes place each year on the last Friday of the UK summer school term, just before the summer holidays begin.
This year, Intrepid is again encouraging the industry to get behind the day and share their activity via the #NTADUK hashtag on social media.
Zina Bencheikh, managing director EMEA, said: “As the industry gets back on its feet, agents are still facing challenging times, with everything from airline disruption to the squeeze on the cost of living. We see NTAD as chance for the industry to come together, show our support for the important role agents play and have some fun.
“We want to make the week of NTAD THE time for customers to book with their local travel agent. We’ve love to see suppliers providing discounts, support, or incentives – anything that can help shine a light on agents during this special week.” The Intrepid team is planning a packed week of agent and customer discounts, giveaways, competitions, surprise treats and events.
Promotions Announced for Advantage Travel Partnership Senior Team
ADVANTAGE Travel Partnerships has announced the promotion of two of the Group’s senior leadership team.
Kelly Cookes, who currently holds the position of Leisure Director is promoted to Chief Commercial Officer and Paul Nunn, currently Operations Director, becomes Chief Operating Officer, with immediate effect.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO, Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “Whilst the last two years has tested and challenged us, it has also made us mature as a business. The pandemic forced us to look at how we operate, build resilience in all we do and kept us laser- focused on supporting our members. It also gave us an opportunity to raise the awareness of Advantage as a media go-to brand and a consumer champion, whilst consistently advocating the benefit of using a travel agent for both business and leisure travel. “As our global business continues to grow and diversify, we now need to better support the strategic framework we have set ourselves going forward. Both Kelly and Paul have delivered over and above during the last few years, and I am delighted to be offering them these well-deserved promotions.” As Chief Commercial Officer, Cookes will concentrate on leveraging the Group’s global buying power and driving improved commercial benefit across the Group, looking at opportunities to develop additional member products and services for the membership. She will also be focused on maximising membership recruitment and retention working alongside her experienced senior management team. In the role of Chief Operating Officer, Nunn – who has worked for Advantage for over twenty years – will continue to provide leadership of all operational, IT, regulatory and compliance aspects of the Advantage group of companies, as well as work with the wider global team to deliver further business solutions that are critical to the Group’s membership, including bonding and insurance products and services.
These management changes follow Lo-Bue-Said’s appointment in May of Guy Snelgar to the newly created position of Global Business Travel Director. She also confirmed that another senior appointment will be announced in the coming weeks. She added “Having a high-performance team in place is crucial as we continue with our vision to provide members and partners with unparalleled services and commercial gain. Our focus for the future is very much on driving forward our four areas of strategic growth: footprint expansion; product and portfolio capitalisation; digital transformation and operational excellence, all underpinned by having the very best people talent.
“I truly believe that the breadth of knowledge, expertise, drive and ambition across my senior team, together with the unwavering support and commitment that we have from our Membership, means we can move forward with vigour and confidence to face the next phase of our development.”
TUI Chief Executive Announces Resignation
FRITZ Joussen have announced that at the end of September, he will resign from his position as Chief Executive of TUI, a position which he has held for ten years.
Effective from 30th of September, Joussen will step down from his position and will be replaced by TUI’s Chief Financial officer, Sebastian Ebel.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KELLY COOKES 51
“I’VE BEEN INCREDIBLY PROUD”
By Sarah Pickering N
I TRAVEL NEWS’ Sarah Pickering caught up with Advantage Travel Partnership’s Leisure Director, Kelly Cooke, to find out what post covid looks like for Advantage and what the future holds.
What does Post-Covid recovery look like for Advantage Travel Partnership?
“For the members, it’s been building back up again which has meant not only from a trading point of view, most members are now trading at between 85% and 110% of 2019. There is highs and lows in that, of course, but that’s kind of ballpark but reselling people, rehiring staff and getting their businesses back in to a place where they can service new enquires, and then also all of the changes that are coming through. From an advantage perspective, similarly it meant us looking at our team internally, and making sure we have got the right people in the right places, but we have also just launched a new three year strategy looking at how we support the members, and the business, and the wider industry. “A lot of the lobbying work and the PR work we’ve been doing over the past two years will continue.”
What can the trade in Northern Ireland expect to see form Advantage this year?
“I think a big piece of the activity that we are doing around the government engagement is about making sure that all of the devolved nations are also captured and not only have a voice, but have a voice that is relevant to their local area. We can’t just see {The Government} talking about the UK, that doesn’t work; It’s a different market over here and a different consumer and operator environment. So hopefully what we will be doing is working closely with ANITA, supporting where they need support to make sure that we are, when we are talking to government, that what we are doing is representing and including the NI trade properly.”
How do you think the travel trade has dealt with the covid pandemic?
“It’s tricky isn’t it because every different component
has dealt with it differently. I think from a travel trade and travel agent perspective, and we obviously look after both leisure and business, I’ve been incredibly proud I think of how resilient we are. When we went into this we did some projections on how many members we may have coming out of it and actually we have only seen a handful go; Each of those is devastating to see them go but it shows the sheer resilience that more have managed to hang on to their businesses and have actually recruited more throughout as well. So I think
Pure Michigan Team Up with Travel Uni To Launch Training Platform
THE State of Michigan are partnering with Travel Uni as they launch the new training platform called, “Pure Michigan Expert”. The training allows travel professionals to learn about the state, and the amazing attractions it has to offer. This platform can be accessed from any internet enabled device, at a pace and time that suits the learner. Having completed the training, which takes approximately 20 minutes, they can then download a certificate of completion which can be used as evidence as part of the candidates CPD. Kelly Wolgamott, the Director of Marketing for Travel Michigan said, “We are delighted to be launching this new venture which will support our industry partners and help them become experts with a depth of understanding on Michigan as a travel destination, and therefore better serve their customers. Pure Michigan is a fantastic place to visit with an astonishing range of opportunities and activities to suit anyone thinking of travelling to the US”
The training program can be accessed by typing “Pure Michigan Expert” into their search engine and registering with the Travel Uni platform, this only takes a few moments and in addition to the training platform, travel professionals have access to resources, news, and assets to help them when advising clients.
Kelly went on to say, “The return of daily direct
flights from the UK to Detroit with Delta/Virgin make Michigan easy to get to, and when they do, they will discover the diversity of cultural and outdoor experiences that make Michigan a unique travel destination.”
As a bonus, anyone completing the training before September the 30th 2022 will automatically be placed into a prize draw to win one of two places, reserved exclusively for those completing the training, on a trade familiarisation visit to the region scheduled to take place in 2023.
NI Travel News’ caught up with Advantage Travel Partnership’s Leisure
Director, Kelly Cooke, to find out what post covid looks like for Advantage and what the future holds
are” says Advantage Travel’s Kelly Cookes
from a travel agent point of view, what we have done really well is look after our customers but also tell new customers why they should book with a travel agent. Other parts of the industry are letting us down now and I think there is no escaping that; Customer confidence is delicate and we are seeing parts of that supply chain fall over which is really frustrating when we are working hard to look after customers. But, again, it just goes back to, at least if you’ve booked with an agent, that person is there if things do go wrong, which they do, you’ve got someone there as support to help you.”
Why do you attend the big Travel Trade Event? “I think it is great to come and touch base with, not
only our members over here, but also the Northern Irish suppliers that are representing the trade. Like I said it’s quite a different operating environment so I think it’s really important that, as Advantage, we have visibility
over here and we come and spend time in the local area and we talk to people about what new products are coming out that we could potentially contact members, what other support and services could we give to our members and you can only really do that by being on the ground here”
What are you most excited about for the future? “I think, definitely the opportunity that the travel
agent has coming out of this and the increased profile. It’s great to be back doing events and things like this event, one of my favourite- I love coming over and hearing and seeing all of the agents over here, so being able to have those face to face conversations again and see people start to get that passion back because its been tough the last two years. So it’s been nice to see people start to blossom when they hear about new products and hear about new initiatives again.”
Right: “I’ve been incredibly proud... of how resilient we
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