Model behaviour

Let’s face it — most travel trade events are pretty bog standard. They start with drinks and canapés, followed by presentations and boring product descriptions and end with a meal so late in the evening that you have indigestion for at least the next 24 hours.

The format never seems to change and it’s therefore no surprise that agents begrudgingly attend. Suppliers usually blame the agents for being unenthusiastic and claim that this is reflected in their apathy towards selling their product.

But maybe it’s the suppliers who are to blame for failing to make their product interesting and exciting?

I was therefore incredibly heartened when South African Airways (SAA) organised a travel trade event to remember on August 13. It was a Thursday evening — never a good time for work events – but the airline managed to attract some 500 travel trade professionals to Le Meridien Airport Hotel in Garhoud, Dubai, many of whom stayed until the wee hours of Friday morning. So how did they do it?

It all started with the aim of launching a brand new brochure for 2009/2010 — ‘Next Stop South Africa’ — and developed into a fashion show extravaganza.

The airline decided to give back to the travel trade that had supported SAA over the years and run a competition to be a top model — the ‘face’ of South Africa — and invited travel agents from across the UAE to audition.

Carrying the tagline ‘Come Live Your Dream’ it was a chance for agents to get out of the office and do something outside of their comfort zone that was not only fun, but great for their personal development.

More than 580 agents applied in total, which was eventually whittled down to 20 contestants — 10 men, 10 women — from agencies including Dnata/HRG, Al Rostamani, Omeir Travel and many more.

Well, I have never seen so many travel agents in one room and when the six winners of the model competition were announced, they were on the edge of their seats, cheering and whistling, faces beaming with pride for their co-workers.

But no one enjoyed themselves as much as the contestants themselves, many of whom said the chance to be trained as a model and take part in such a competition really was a dream come true. They said that they would remember the night for years to come and that the experience had given them more confidence than they could imagine.

The repercussions of this are huge — not only for SAA, which will no doubt benefit in terms of loyalty and sales, both short- and long-term, but also for the agents and the agencies for whom they work. What better way to incentivise your staff than by encouraging them to take part in an event like this?

Agency managers who allow their staff to take part in extra-curricular actitivites doing themselves and their company a big favour. Invest in staff and they will be loyal to you. They will also be more productive and ambitious.

Well done SAA for showing the travel trade how things should be done. We applaud you.

Gemma Greenwood is the senior group editor of ITP Business’ travel & hospitality tiles.

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