Asata is to start work on a regular report to demonstrate the economic value and input of Travel and Tourism, in order to give the organisation more bargaining power when it comes to dealing with high-level issues and engaging government departments.
The economic report is part of the travel agency association’s 2022/23 strategy and will be updated every quarter or possibly, bi-annually.
Asata’s 2022/23 plan has been in play since April with its focus areas described as three pillars:
*advocacy and lobbying;
*member support, information & training; and
*good governance, risk management, compliance and professional development.
Asata ceo, Otto de Vries, outlined a significant amount of work already done, which related to the category advocacy and lobbying - from engagements with National Treasury through Asata’s TMC forum, to managing Covid-related matters and engaging IATA on its local financial criteria. Asata had also connected with South African Tourism, in its efforts to boost the industry’s recovery.
De Vries said Asata was also actively engaging embassies, consulates and visa facilitation companies in order to address issues and to try to deal with backlogs.
De Vries said payment solutions too were important from a cost and risk management perspective.
Another priority is airline risk management. “This is in light of the financial situations that airlines find themselves in post-Covid. “We have to jump through a million hoops as agents to represent airlines, but we don’t feel that is being reciprocated. We want to see if it can deliver a level of comfort to agents and customers that monies through BSP are safe,” the ceo said.
De Vries felt travel was recovering incredibly quickly and “much quicker than anticipated”. While Asata’s new economic report would give an accurate, up-to-date figure, de Vries said the size of BSP ZA was approximately R27bn in 2019. “That is just airline sales settled between travel agents and airlines on BSP and it doesn’t talk about any other sales channel,” he said.
Under member support, information and training, Asata plans to host more webinars, training and travel summits. An updated 21st Century Travel Agent study has just been shared exclusively with members and offers nine recommendations.
Under good governance, risk management, compliance and professional development, Asata is planning content around refund responsibilities, terms and conditions guidelines and mark-ups versus service fees.
Asata’s structure remains the same as pre-Covid, despite fewer resources and staff, De Vries said. He added that membership numbers had remained “steady” and that almost all changes were due to ITC sign-ups and consolidation in the industry.
Asata is also still an active member of the World Travel Agency Associations Alliance, he said, while Shereen Morolo, Public Sector ceo at Tourvest, will continue to serve as president until her term ends later this year.
