Excite has a fresh face in New Zealand, with Suzanne Conradie now in the role as business development manager.

While new in the Excite position, Conradie is well known to many in the Kiwi trade, particularly after a long stint here with South African Airways.

The announcement comes at a time when Excite is celebrating a 15-year anniversary, marked late last week by a party in relatively new premises in York Street, Sydney.

Air New Zealand has started trialling its new Inflight Wi-Fi service on one of its long-haul Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
 
The airline is rolling out Wi-Fi capability across its international jet fleet, beginning with the 777-300 fleet. 

A call for the single biggest beneficiary of tourism to reinvest in the product was made yesterday by Tourism Industry Aotearoa boss Chris Roberts.
Speaking at SKAL Auckland’s monthly luncheon, Roberts said the government had increased its GST take by $500m a year, from $700m to $1.2b, since the tourism boom began around four years ago.

Sue and Paul Robinson didn’t take any heed of the naysayers when they first became travel agency store owners three years ago.

After a stint in insurance broking and then a successful property management come inbound tourism venture (especially around the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand), they looked for new opportunities.

‘I looked at franchise for the first time; we have always started our own businesses until then,’ says Sue Robinson.

Virtual reality will become an increasingly important sales tool for travel professionals and is also likely to add to the travel experience – but won’t stop people from actually going places.

That’s the view of Russell Craig, national technology officer, Microsoft New Zealand.

‘I see the two as being both / and, rather than either/ or.’

The Travel Agents Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) is urging its members to take action now to comply with a global security standard to protect confidential payment card information against theft.

IATA has set a date of 1 March for accredited agents to achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

TAANZ president says there is some lobbying to have IATA ‘see reason’ on the time frame, but that said it is important that agents take the subject seriously.

The 2017 TAANZ National Travel Industry Awards produced probably the most even spread of winners in the event’s history, with variation and new winners thrown into the mix.
A notable trend was a steady early call-out of helloworld names – GO Holidays as best wholesaler; Janine Mallon, The Travel Brokers as best broker; Rebekah Hensman of helloworld 5 Mile taking out best rookie of the year; Michelle Malcolm, helloworld North Harbour named best travel agency manager – retail; and helloworld Blenheim, Rolleston, Wanganui being called up as best brand retail – multi location.

The Travel Agents’ Association New Zealand (TAANZ) says its new consumer proposition and a ‘suite of assets’ promoting the benefits of using a TAANZ travel agent are now available for members.

This includes the new look logo and a ‘Five Reasons to Choose a TAANZ Accredited Travel Agent’ chart which can be easily integrated into agents’ own websites.

First Travel Group’s Margaret Spiro, who was on a spacial marketing group for the project, says the aim was to modernise the logo and the message and make TAANZ more credible to the consumer.

Higher than ever repeat and satisfaction rates from The Travel Corporation clients is due to a large degree to the trade’s knowledge and understanding of the company’s offerings, guests at a function in Auckland heard this week.
‘The messaging in 2017 and into 2018 means that your clients are prepared for the experience they are going to have,’ Scott Cleaver, general manager sales at The Travel Corporation told the gathered agents at Crave Café during the Fiesta event. Cleaver says the event, and similar functions around the country, are about saying thank you to the trade – particularly from the Trafalgar, Contiki and Insight brands. He says that while sharp airfare deals have helped drive sales to Europe in general, the trend has also meant that yields get ‘more challenging’, leading to a higher propensity to sell land content.

Viva Expeditions reports that all of its local guides, and our friends and family in Mexico are safe and well and the company is sending its thoughts and condolences to the people who have been impacted. 

Adapting to booking patterns and constantly monitoring the costs to travel are two key factors in being a successful travel agent now, says Billy Ballantine, of Lakers House of Travel in Invercargill.
‘I think within five years no one will book anything until within six months of travel,’ says Ballantine, who is a finalist in the best travel consultant – retail category of the TAANZ National Travel Industry Awards. ‘The earlybird has had its worm and we need to adapt to this. Getting ready for the next step – as a travel agent or any business – we must always be relevant and be prepared for the unknown, continually working on our point of difference.’ He says monitoring

Fans of Game of Thrones will have the opportunity to meet a Knight of the Kingsguard and a member of the Night’s Watch at the Winterfell Festival on 24 September.

Keep your knowledge up, keep training and keep visiting new destinations. That’s one of the tips for success from Samantha Johnston of YOU Travel Taupo.

Intrepid Travel now offers food adventures in more than 25 countries including two new foodie tours in the Middle East in 2018. The new Real Food Adventures brochure, out now, offers authentic, local food experiences across Europe, Asia, the Americas, the subcontinent and the Middle East with more than 30 itineraries.

Possibly no other agent in New Zealand knows more about Germany in general and (almost certainly) German trade shows than Robert Laing, owner of Messe Reps.
Laing has actually been dealing with trade shows since 1989, when he worked with Jetsave and later White Heron Express. He started Messe Reps in 1996 and says trade fairs in Germany are still big business and still well attended by companies in New Zealand.

A Grand Train Tour of Switzerland is a key feature of the 2018 Great Train Journeys brochure,

Flight Centre Travel Group (FLT) will acquire two high profile New Zealand travel businesses. One is Travel Managers Group (TMG), a predominantly leisure-focused group that provides systems and support services to a network of more than 180 individual brokers. TMG also operates a 22-shop franchise network, which includes 12 TravelSmart shops and 10 non-branded stores. The other is Executive Travel Group (ETG), New Zealand’s largest independent corporate travel management company.

New stores, new technology and nationwide brand recognition are all indicators of the huge progress being made by helloworld, just over a year since the company launched across New Zealand. At the helloworld gala awards, in Christchurch on Saturday night, general manager marketing, David Libeau, was in an upbeat mood.

A number of independent agents at the Global Travel Network (GTN) Conference over the weekend say they often feel like they are on the ‘periphery’ of the travel industry and forgotten about by suppliers – both air and land. They cited the chance to catch up with 24 airlines, tour operators, cruise companies and other suppliers under one roof as the key reason to attend the conference at Rydges Rotorua.

Foodie travel has found its place over the past couple of years, but there is more growth to come, according to a small but diverse group of tourist offices and tour companies at The Auckland Food Show this week. Intrepid is showing off its Food Worldwide Adventures brochure and hosting a competition for show visitors to win a trip up to the value of $3000. Intrepid assistant manager Charlotte Randell says the company’s food tours are a big hit and the range on offer has steadily grown. New food adventure destinations include South Korea and Israel.

Recent research from Concur claims that many companies are unaware they have a legal obligation to fulfil their duty of care responsibilities for travelling employees.

However, Paul Halford, marketing manager at Orbit World Travel, says that’s not quite the case anymore.

‘Across the Orbit business, we have a large number of clients – small, medium, large, private, and public. What we see on a day-to-day basis is that employers are definitely aware that they have an obligation, especially over the last 12 months or so,’ he says.

The skills crisis in New Zealand’s tourism and travel starts in secondary schools, where both teachers and students in the topics are often looked down upon by their peers, says a leading educator in the sector.

Megan Roberts, tourism work integrated learning leader and industry liaison and senior lecturer at School of Hospitality and Tourism Auckland University of Technology (AUT) says the issue urgently needs leadership.

“The situation in secondary schools needs a real shake-up,’ says Roberts. ‘Tourism and hospitality are often seen as the options for less academic students.

More than 40% of the audience at a recent travel conference felt that travel agencies and travel management companies are most at risk from the various changes taking place in the industry now.
Another 30.7% of the audience at the Travelport LIVE conference in Sydney felt that everyone in the sector was at risk, while 9.9% felt GDS and technology providers had the most to fear. Airlines came in at 7.7%.
The survey came during a panel discussion on the distribution landscape, when moderator Peter Harbison, executive chairman of CAPA (Centre for Aviation) identified consumer empowerment and big data players as the

Mondo Travel is looking for brokers and independent agents who want to represent the company in key regions of New Zealand.

Mondo CEO, Tony Terrill, says agents who would like to carry the Mondo logo and gain from the benefits the company brings could potentially take up the option of being fully Mondo branded.