Q Paul Melinis& A
APT, managing director UK and Europe
Q. Tell us why you are sponsoring the 2018 Agent Achievement Awards. A. These awards are the biggest celebration of the travel trade in the UK and they also echo APT’s own brand values – delivering incredible customer service, crafting exceptional holiday experiences, exceeding expectations and working collaboratively – all of which are recognised and awarded through the AAAs. We really wanted to be a key part of recognising the huge talent and hard work our colleagues from across the travel world invest into making our industry so great. We are honoured to be supporting this event.
Awards preview: The UK’s biggest celebration of travel agents, the Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards, takes place tonight (July 12). We chat to Paul Melinis, managing director UK and Europe, at headline sponsor APT.
Headline sponsors
Q. How do you work with agents and what value do they add to your business? A. Travel agents are at the heart of our business and have remained a fundamental part of our DNA throughout APT’s 90 years in the travel industry. More than 75% of APT’s business comes from the trade. Our industry partners add a huge amount of value; they offer nationwide distribution, trusted partnerships and the ability to showcase our products to their clients, either as a standalone offering or packaged with other travel options that have a synergy with our own luxury river cruises and tours.
Q. What have been the highlights for your business in the last year? A. Without a doubt, for all of us in the senior management team the highlight has been
watching our people, business and our partners’ businesses grow. From a commercial perspective, we’ve been focused on growth in Asia and Europe. To achieve this goal, we’ve increased investment in industry relationships, expanded our trade team, provided more events and training, developed our river cruise product and offered compelling incentives and offers. The end result has been impressive – both for us and our travel agent partners. In the past year, APT grew trade sales by 25% – an achievement that is thanks to incredible industry support.
Q. What activity do you have planned for agents in the next 12 months? A. We are currently putting the finishing touches to an exciting trade journey with lots of new initiatives we plan to roll out shortly. I can’t share all the details now but agents will continue to remain central to everything we have planned, so watch this space! To celebrate our first AAA appearance, we will start this journey on the night by bringing all our agents something special.
Q. Will you be promoting any particular products or services around the event? A. With a brand new River Cruising 2019 brochure recently launched and our new Canada 2019 escorted touring due to debut, we’ll be no doubt reminding agents of all the incredible early booking deals available, plus encouraging them to enter our incentive
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travelweekly.co.uk 12 July 2018
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