07 October 2008

ABTA TRAVEL CONVENTION BLOG: Delegates seek satisfaction in the sun

by Jeremy Skidmore

Another year, another conference, but will all those excited delegates pouring into Gran Canaria feel satisfied in a couple of days' time?

I'm not talking about what may or may not happen in the night clubs, but rather whether the event itself will live up to expectations.

It opened brightly with ABTA president Justin Fleming taking to the stage, albeit a little late, to a packed audience and promising an exciting few days.

But a glance at the business sessions and the jury is out Ã~ââ¬' a lot of future gazing and talk about how happy you can be at work. But let's not be too harsh at this stage;Ã~some of these nebulous subjects can sometimes turn out rather well and, in any case, it is difficult to keep coming up with new material for a convention.

Add in the fact that you can't get any decision makers here because they'd be scared stiff of being outed for going on a jolly during a credit crisis and programme planning suddenly becomes a tough job.

But hopefully we won't have too much waffle from companies claiming they are bucking the trend and still ahead of last year (translation: business is terrible and we're bricking it).

Earlier, ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer, usually a very sensible chap, drew gasps with his suggestion that it could run parallel conferences next year ââ¬' in the UK and abroad (see earlier story).

This industry needs more conferences like a hole in the head.Ã~ Plans for one big independent agents' event ââ¬' surely the way forward ââ¬' have already been scuppered by Advantage's insistence that it wants to go it alone. At this rate we'll be back to the days when we seemed to spend every bank holiday at an overseas conference.

A domestic event is worth considering but the problem has always been that you don't have a captive audience for any period of time because people dip in and out. This will particularly be the case if they are mini events spread around the country. They will become like glorified awards event evenings, of which we have plenty already.

But a domestic and overseas conference? It's difficult enough finding enough new material for one decent event each year. And UK venues don't see the value in hosting the travel industry.

Personally, I'm in favour of keeping the overseas event because it removes people from their working environment and the networking with contacts is by far the most important part of the event. And a bit of sun in October/November never goes amiss.

Just make a block booking in Palma for the next 10 years: it's accessible and a great venue for conferences.

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