THE travel industry knows how to adapt to change;
it’s used to dealing with it every day. What it needs
to learn is a daily practice of focusing on the
opportunities that change brings rather than feeling
overwhelmed by the challenges it presents.
This is the message that Vanya Lessing, ceo
of Sure Travel, shared at the consortium’s 2018
consultants training forum.
Vanya said that, despite the challenging market,
Sure Travel was seeing growth. Speaking to TNW
after the conference, she attributed the company’s
resilience to a healthy mix of corporate and leisure
business. “While our corporate side has not shown
significant growth, our leisure business has seen
a lot of organic growth in the last financial year.
The segment of our customer base that comprises
corporates travelling into Africa has grown about 10%,
our leisure market to the UK and Europe is growing
and, while Mauritius remains strong, our top-selling
regional destination is South Africa.”
She added that there were good margins in selling
domestic travel at the moment, an area that she
identified as a key opportunity in the current market.
“More South Africans see travel as aspirational and
want to explore their country. The Western Cape, bush
lodges and luxury spas remain top sellers. The main
customer base for these experiences is corporates
who can only take a short break and don’t want to
spend the majority of their holiday travelling. These
customers are also concerned with the price of
international travel, given the current volatility of the
exchange rate.”
Vanya recommends that agents focus on actively
promoting travel for all budgets and delivering
excellent service. “Be goal focused and
actively explore opportunities to stay
at the forefront. Don’t stay in a
comfort zone of packaging
what your regular customers
purchase from you. Actively
target new prospects and
think outside the box.
Don’t pigeonhole your customer
Robyn Christie, founder of Just Saying and
ex-SA country manager of Travelport, highlighted
the difference between South Africa and
developed Western countries and warned
agents against generational stereotyping.
“According to the generational split, I’m a
baby boomer, so is my domestic worker. We
might be the same age, but due to the history
in South Africa, our needs, wants and consumer
habits are worlds apart. The same is true of the
millennial generation in SA,” said Robyn.
She told agents it was important to recognise
that they were dealing with a customer base
significantly different to that found in a First
World country. “As a result, the opportunities
available to us are unique to this market.
“Many of the trends identified overseas as
challenges to the travel industry are not directly
relevant to our market. South Africa has a very
different socio-economic reality to Europe, the
UK, or America, for example.”
She said the widely cited ‘by 2025, 25% of
all jobs will be automated’ statistic did not
apply to South Africa. “In the South African
circumstance, where the government is on
a drive to create more jobs and end poverty,
policy will not allow for the widespread
automation of jobs.
Future of customer experience
Robyn emphasised that good customer
experience was key to overcoming the
current market challenges. She cited
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2017/2018 future
of customer experience report as
recent evidence of this.
The report found that
speed, convenience,
helpful employees
and friendly
service mattered
most, each
hitting over 70%
when rated for
importance to
consumers. One in three consumers said
they would walk away from a brand they
loved after just one bad experience.
Good service was not only appreciated but
more profitable. “The pay-offs for valued,
great experiences are tangible: up to a 16%
price premium on products and services,
plus increased loyalty,” said the report.
It also found that human interaction was
key – with 74% of consumers saying they
wanted more of it in the future. The report
said that technology was perceived to have
value when it supported human interaction
in a seamless and unobtrusive manner,
across platforms.
