NEWS orable experiences and sessions hosted by Jacobs Media Group brands. By T ravel Weekly reporters


Cosmos boss expects rapid touring rebound next year


Global Travel


Week attracted hundreds of buyers and suppliers to the Kia Oval


community tie-ups


is so much more we can do to link communities and tourists together. “We have been conditioned that


tourism is about beaches and hotels. It’s about changing the narrative: [tourism] is more than just a hotel, it’s a destination.” Tobago Tourism Agency UK


representative Nadine Rankin said the Caribbean destination was trying to find ways tourism could deliver broader benefits. An example could be tourist


weddings being held in communities rather than being “the preserve of the hotels”, she said.


T


he touring sector is forecast to rebound rapidly in 2022 as travellers seek new


experiences and lesser-known destinations, but with the comfort and security of a guide. Giles Hawke, chief executive of


touring brand Cosmos, told a session hosted by the Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers (Atas) that forward bookings for next year were outperforming 2019, with around half of that business coming from new customers rather than from rebooked passengers who delayed travel due to the pandemic. He said: “We will come back


really strongly. People in our demographic – 55-plus – are wealthy and curious; they want to travel but they want that hand-holding.” Both Hawke and G Adventures


managing director Brian Young reported customer feedback was


Giles Hawke


to bringing travellers to less-visited areas such as the interior of mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores. Atas account director Claire


Brighton said the expansion of the association during the past 18 months showed the resilience and growth potential of the sector. She said: “We’ve added more


supplier members and a lot more agent members. The training has been really appealing and we’re working with a lot of homeworkers that we weren’t working with before. “It’s great to see people keen to


better than before the pandemic, while the latter said the average age of its customers had risen thanks to populations with higher vaccination rates being quicker to restart travel. Speakers also reported the


expansion of programmes focusing on lesser-known areas, with Claudia Miguel, director of Visit Portugal, saying the touring sector was crucial


interact with us even during this period. “We’ve got our largest-ever Atas


Conference in three weeks’ time, which is really exciting; we’ve got more training and some virtual and face-to-face events coming up; and we’ll be making improvements to our website to better deliver for our supplier and agent members.”


‘Industry must rethink crisis management protocols’


Travel firms have been urged to rethink crisis management procedures and adhere to common standards industry-wide. Speaking at a Resilience Council insights session,


Jill Sinclair, chief executive of Global Health Assured, said the pandemic had highlighted inconsistencies in crisis management policies and the travel industry’s approach to it. Sinclair founded Global Health Assured


Representatives of Caribbean and African destinations included Marc McCollin (second left) and Nadine Rankin (far right)


travelweekly.co.uk


during the pandemic to help deal with some of the issues raised by Covid in destinations. It has developed Covid-19 health protocols to ‘unlock’ travel to destinations worldwide. She said: “At the moment, there is


lip service paid to it. Travel companies have to relook at crisis management.”


Jill Sinclair 7 OCTOBER 2021 15 Larger companies with more resources, protocols


and management had shown themselves to be able to ‘fulfil and deliver’ high standards of crisis management during Covid, Sinclair said. “Where you got resources and experience, the crisis tends to be managed much better. There is containment and protocols.” But she added: “There are huge amounts


of inconsistencies across government and hospitality because in many ways we don’t have a unified body. I don’t think there is enough harmony across standards. “It comes back to governments


and world health organisations working together. It’s caused so many issues around how businesses can plan.”


PICTURES: Sarah Lucy Brown


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