p13 abta oct10 8/10/08 22:49 Page 13
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The Travel Convention 2008 • Survival tips
INDUSTRY TRAINING.
ATP helps Co-op
staff ‘prosper’
THE CO-OPERATIVE Travel has joined Abta’s
Accredited Travel Professional programme – and
managing director Mike Greenacre believes the
entire industry should follow suit.
Greenacre said ATP would
help the industry survive and
prosper by identifying talented
staff and helping them reach
their potential.
ATP was developed by Abta
with People 1st and ITT and is
designed to chart individuals’ career progress by
recognising qualifications and experience.
Photos
P
A
The Co-operative Travel’s membership was
announced at The Travel Convention, enabling
‘You’re in a pit stop
its 2,000 employees to sign up for free. It joins
Hoseasons, Knock Travel and Sunvil in the scheme.
Greenacre at ‘Pride of Britain’ awards, p20
– act fast’ says PwC
MANAGEMENT.
How to make your
Lee Hayhurst.
should be able to forecast through to Christmas.
TRAVEL firms that fail to forecast cashflow “Anybody who gets caught out by this should workforce happy
deserve to go out of business, Pricewaterhouse- not be in business. The key in a grand prix is
Coopers partner Malcolm Preston has warned. what you do in the pit stop. The key thing is who DELEGATES were given tips on how to be great
Preston likened the economy to a grand prix does the right things in a downturn.” managers by consultant Henry Stewart.
and said companies should treat the downturn Preston added that companies should also Stewart is the chief executive of IT training
as a pit stop when decisions had to be made fast focus on their employees, as the downturn would company Happy, rated last year by The Sunday
to ensure success. demonstrate which firms had the best staff. Times as the second-best place to work in the UK.
The key decision was ensuring that they kept “When it gets hard is when your best people His key strategies during a downturn are to
a tight rein on cash, he said. rise to the top,” he said. make managers “get out of the way”, make staff
“It drives me nuts when I see firms not fore- “It’s easy to sell and negotiate in a bull market. feel great, pick managers for the right reasons,
casting cashflows. It is ridiculous not to do it. You It’s much tougher in a difficult market.” and celebrate mistakes.
Stewart said one of the most important skills
is being able to trust and empower staff. When
Biggs: Specialise or you will fail
staff were given a project they should be told
their solution was pre-approved – then they
would be more innovative and feel more valued.
FUTURE OF AGENTS.
Biggs advised that although short trips might “The one key principal is that people work best
AGENTS need to specialise to survive and make suffer a little, people would not give up their when they feel good about themselves,” he said.
sure their knowledge is second to none. main holiday and that selecting an area about
Speaking at an e-tid breakfast briefing, Sue which they were passionate was the key.
Biggs, Thomas Cook scheduled businesses man- Wimbleton added: “The big challenge is to
aging director, and John Wimbleton, Tui Travel ac- present new experiences all the time to keep
tivity holidays sector managing director, agreed people coming back.
that agents who generalised would struggle. “They want to keep travelling, but we need to
Biggs said: “The successful trend is in special- give them a discernible reason to go.”
e Dunlop
ist areas; that is the future. We need to know He stressed that agents must be more knowl- Stev
what we are good at and push it out to the client.” edgeable than the customer to add value.” Happy Talk: Henry Stewart on being a good manager
10.10.2008 13
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