The importance of the Convention bar

Graham McKenzie believes being at the ABTA Convention parties is just as vital as being at the business sessions. That’s his excuse anyway!

"When you go to any overseas conference there are three very popular questions. Firstly ‘When did you get here?’ secondly ‘How’s business?’ and thirdly ‘Where did you go last night? Tempted as I was, after a while, to say ‘None of your business’ to all three, I realised it wasn’t going to help me get the best of return on the investment I’d made to fly all the way to Abu Dhabi for this year’s ABTA Convention at the super luxury Yas Island Viceroy. So, instead, like everyone else, I gave a polite and friendly answer because, after all, conferences aren’t just about the sessions and the workshops, but about networking, making new friends, acquaintances and perhaps learning something new. So let’s look at those questions again:

‘When did you get here?’ Not such an inane question as you might think at first glance. There appear to be so many flights from London to Abu Dhabi that virtually nobody arrives at the same time. If you add in Dubai as well, just over an hour’s drive away, then the question is, in fact, a good one. Anything from lunchtime to early evening and the early hours of the morning could have been the response, and some people even had an aborted landing story to share. And, of course, we all know how Ronan Keating got there!

Ronan gives his all courtesy of Etihad

‘How’s business?’ If you listened to the various conversations, presentations and reports, it seems that business in the UK travel industry couldn’t be better. A post Brexit Britain is still travelling, and in large numbers, but if your particular business isn’t doing well it’s unlikely you would have been at the conference in the first place, and if you were it’s questionable that you would be chatting about it with your partners and rivals over a beer. What was interesting was that many of the speakers still believed in the importance of service, process and brand, almost at the cost of the actual holiday or travel experience. There were no debates about sustainability, responsibility, or the economic benefit and importance of travel and tourism, not just overseas but also in our country. With the pound becoming less valuable by the second, there was a somewhat fatuous debate about Britain’s exit from the European community and its effect on the travel industry – seemingly very little. For one delegate, however, Andrew Swaffield of Monarch, business was definitely peachy.

‘Where did you go last night?’ Well, the Travel Convention and Abu Dhabi offered many options and there can be no doubt that the choices were excellent. The real return and the real benefit of a conference are often to be found in the social occasions, and if they are as good as what was served up by ABTA and the destination, so much the better. I am sure that Abu Dhabi, Etihad and indeed ABTA, has 500 or more new advocates for their products and services, not necessarily due to the presentations, formal discussions and ‘expert’ panels, but due to the extra return on investment to be gained by fully engaging in the evening events. Where did I go last night? I went to work!

Stark, Freeth, McCreadie and McKenzie