Bad winter for travel and tourism agents

Many travel and tourism agents felt they were heading towards one of the worst winters in recent years, FATTA president Iain Tonna said.

Addressing the general meeting of the Federated Association of Travel andTourism Agents, Mr Tonna said that the forecast for summer on advance bookings was not encouraging either.

“If we are expecting this situation to have no bearing on our economy, and consequently on our financial markets, then I fear we will be disappointed.”

Mr Tonna said that the industry needed to be proactive and work towards interpreting and understanding the trends and evolution of the industry better. Consumers changed their travel habits, expectations, motivations and decision making process and they would continue to evolve and adapt to circumstances, time and advances in technology.

“We therefore need to keep our marketing tactics updated to fit this continuous evolution.

The industry, he said, had to focus on maintaining a balanced mix in tourism, and tour operator business should continue to be an important component in that mix

FATTA, he said, continued to advocate a prudent approach in the funding of new air routes.

“New routes are certainly desirable and necessary to sustain continued growth. If we had unlimited funds at our disposal, we would be the first to throw it at every potential opportunity ... but we don’t have that luxury.

“The decision to fund routes should therefore be taken only after careful evaluation of the real sustainable potential of those routes. Such decisions should certainly not be made hastily and simply to give in to the pressures of certain operators known for their bullying tactics and arrogance.”

Mr Tonna noted that certain “new routes” closed after less than two years of operation in spite of operators’ contractual commitment to operate for longer. There were also reductions in flight frequencies from other “new routes” again in spite of obligations to maintain such frequencies.

“There is no point in investing so heavily in such routes if these are not sustainable for at least medium term. Let’s make sure we are focussing our marketing funds on sustainable initiatives, and let’s not replace our overdependence on tour operators with overdependence on any particular carrier,” he said.