Stella outlines criteria for preferred relations with wholesalers at CATO AGM and Dinner

At this week’s CATO AGM and Dinner at the Sofitel Wentworth Hote in Sydney, Stella Travel Services’s Leisure Travel Services Manager Mark Cario explained Stella Travel Services’ vision for preferred relationship with wholesalers

Cario told the 90 attendees that Stella was committed to a full partnership with its preferred wholesaers and its 1,500 affiliated retailers and this would involve a policy to promote and sell prefered wholesalers products.

Cario also told attendees that while it would maintain the Harvey World, Concorde and Travelscene brand identities, all the constituent agents within the Stella group would share a commitent to the same group of preferred products.

In an attempt to allay the concerns of some wholesalers who feel they may be squeezed out of contention by Stella outlets, Stella would be open to establishing preferred arrangements with niche and specialist wholesalers who could fill any gaps in the market.    

The CATO evening included a thought provoking range of presentations during the evening, including one from Tourabout which is a tour product web portal which gave a demonstration of its product which  enables both retail travel agents and the travelling public to shop for Australian based wholeale product on-line.

Tourabout Managers Ben and Carl Jackson gave a presentation on the Tourabout system which already involves a number of leading Australian wholesalers ranging from large fims like the Globus group and Travel Corporation to specialist operators such as The Imaginative Traveller and Greece and Mediterranean Travel Centre.

Mr Jackson aims for Tourabout to be the first tour based portal to be a top 30 ranked web site on most major search engines.

Harold Wolpert Chairman of the Travel Industry Careers Association gave an erudite speech on the challenges ahead for the travel industry in human resource management, with Wolpert correctly observing that the skills shortage in the industry represented an ongoing crisis and that many players in the travel industry remained unaware of the severity of this problem.

TICA is planning to work closely with the industry and training and educational institutions to match training and skills with current and future needs,  revealing that average staff turnover in most Australian business runs at 35% per annum which creates ongoing inefficiencies for all business including travel.

Justin Kagan from VAT recovery spoke of the services his company could provide for tour operators and travel agents to recover VAT expenses incurred by staff and corporate clients in Europe and especially in Germany.

Ian Mc Mahon, Editor of Travel Bulletin and well respected industry media identity rounded off the evening by talking of new the buzz words of the industry including consolidation, vertical integration and agglomeration, with the language of strategic management clearly creeping into the lexicon of the tourism industry as tourism organisations try to become all things to all people.

Mc Mahon struck a warning that this trend could reverse and has suggested that airlines in particular have dropped their distribution arms and have increasingly focussed on their core business of being an airline.

He opened the question of whether some of the large multi groupings in the industry bitten off more than they can chew let alone digest.

CATO re-elected Simon Hills (Icon Holidays) as Chairman and Peter Bailey as General Manager, with Hills making it clear that CATO would ensure that wholesalers will become a far more united and stronger force in the industry and that retail chains cannot expect to take wholesaler support for granted unless they delivered support in return. 

He also called on retailers to avoid the pitfall of being so blinkered by preferred product policy that they avoid providing what their customers actually want and lose sales in the process.

A Report by TravelMole contributor David Beirman