NEWS — AITO CONFERENCE REPORT
Ted Wake, Kirker Holidays; Di Brownrigg and Gemma
Antrobus, both Haslemere Travel; and Oliver Broad, Aito Agents chairman, at Drayton Manor theme park
Aito Agents held its annual domestic conference in Staffordshire last weekend. JULIET DENNIS reports from the Drayton Manor Hotel
Tap into internet fatigue, Wake tells Aito agents
The trade should take advantage of increasing internet fatigue among holidaymakers, according to Aito tour operators and travel agents.
Speaking at this year’s Aito Agents 2014 domestic conference, Ted Wake, Kirker Holidays sales and marketing director, said consumers could
“There are
fewer companies doing face-to-
face, so those that do it well are benefiting”
only cope with looking at six or seven web pages before reaching their “tolerance levels”. The lack of a real person to
give holiday advice online meant mistakes were easily made on the web, he added. “There is never a box online that says ‘are you sure that’s a good idea?’. The web will take your money whether it’s a good idea or not. We have an opportunity to give people that lifestyle choice.” Aito agents
said they were already enjoying a strong start to 2014 as a result of more clients getting fed up with using the web. Tickets Anywhere managing director Bryony Hordern said: “People are coming back from the internet. It’s about choice, not necessarily price.
People can get more
information from their agent. If you book
online, there is no one to ask.”
Oliver Broad, Aito Agents chairman, said the fact that so many companies in different industries encouraged clients to book online represented an opportunity for high street agents. “There are fewer companies
doing face-to-face [service], so those that do it well are benefiting,” he said. “Websites are trying to be
more interactive but it’s still a one-way relationship. Every new client we get says they are fed up with the internet.”
‘Find time to market your business’
Travel agents need to become marketeers and allocate time on a regular basis to
looking at ways to grow their businesses. Guest speaker Paul Chapman (pictured), who runs marketing company 5:15 and is a member of Nigel Botterill’s Entrepreneurs’ Club, gave delegates at the Aito Agents 2014 domestic conference 18 tips for business owners. Instead of opening emails first thing in the morning,
he urged business owners to spend up to 90 minutes on work related to marketing their businesses.
“Super-successful business
owners are experts at marketing and sales. You have to start thinking like a marketeer,” he said. “If you do not make time for this you will have a problem. Put aside time two or three times a week just to market your business and work out how to get more customers.” Chapman said agents should
also track the number of clients coming to the business via different channels to work out which is the best one to focus advertising spend on. “It’s cheap to track this – you cannot not do this," he said.
‘Avoid being negative on Facebook’
Agents and operators should avoid using social media to make negative comments as it reflects badly on the industry as a whole, delegates at this year’s Aito Agents 2014 domestic conference were warned. Jonathan Whiteley, national sales manager of 1st Class Holidays, said there appeared to be a tendency for agents to use Facebook and Twitter to
14 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 16 January 2014 — tra
Oliver Broad: ‘Clients are fed up with the internet’
post negative comments. “A lot of people use it in a
negative way to ‘have a go’ on an industry issue, but Facebook and Twitter are open for everybody to see and it sends out negative messages,” he said. “At 1st Class Holidays we do much less social media than we ought to because we are trade- only, but you have to make sure you use it in the right way.”
CONFERENCE REPORT
Aito Agents 2014 conference
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