Corporate connoisseurs

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Specialist meetings agencies are taking business from smaller travel agencies by offering services rather than just tickets.

Travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) that specialise in corporate and meetings related travel are having such an impact on the market that generic travel agents are witnessing a downturn in business from the corporate sector.

Agencies wishing to compete are being forced to provide dedicated corporate teams or risk losing more business to the specialists.

And according to managing director of corporate travel specialists Dream Horizons, C.P Ranjith, it is a trend that hasn't gone unnoticed with "more and more companies specialising for corporate groups".

"Business used to be with the travel agencies, but more companies here and in India are depending on companies like us," he said.

It would appear the lure of the corporate connoisseur comes in many guises for the corporates moving away from smaller generic travel agencies.

However, the shift towards using corporate specialists can be explained by their knowledge of the destinations and their inherent understanding of the specific requirements of the corporate traveller.

"We are not a leisure company at all - we are totally dedicated to the corporate market so we have been increasing our clientele," Ranjith said.

And as Ranjith explained, another advantage for companies using dedicated corporate travel agencies was having one point of contact for a trip.

"We have account managers who give a 24/7 service from the time groups arrive to the time they leave and more and more companies are wanting someone like us in their fold.

"With one click of a button they can transfer all the difficulties of getting the right hotel or transfers to us. It becomes our headache and responsibility not theirs," he added.

V Kishore, assistant sales manager of Kanoo Travel in Dubai Investment Park, Jebel Ali, acknowledged the "stiff competition" from the specialists.

"The specialists are a serious threat because it is the only area they work on so they have more of a chance to corner the market," he said.

But the shift towards companies such as Dream Horizons has not been taken lying down by the larger TMCs.

"We have come up with a dedicated meetings and incentive team in response," Kishore said.

"Having a specific team coupled with our high standards gives us a good platform to compete with these new agencies.

"Corporates are increasingly looking at the service levels they receive and they want to work with professional consultants with sophisticated travel policies. They really want agencies with knowledge so that is really positive for us because it's something we can definitely sell ourselves on," he added.

And specialisation appears to be paying dividends for TMCs that jump on board the specialisation bandwagon.

General manager commercial for Kanoo Travel, Roland Bunge said that one client was witnessing so much meetings and events business that it asked to have a dedicated Kanoo representative in-house to deal with the specialised volume of work.

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