What do clients want?

What do clients want?
SPEAKING specifically on
how her company manages
travel in the African market,
Heidi Kratochvil, company
travel co-ordinator at Air
Liquide Southern Africa,
told TNW that one unique
aspect of its policy would be
providing a meet and greet,
as well as obtaining an ISOS
validation of every trip into
Africa.
“The meet and greet is an
Air Liquide-created document,
in which the traveller will
need to have a picture of the
host as well as any other
details pertaining to the trip
being hosted, including hotel
and shuttle/car hire,” says
Heidi.
She says the meet and
greet is attached to the
booking and only once all
aspects of the ISOS as
well as the meet and greet
are finalised, will the travel
proceed.
At Air Liquide Southern
Africa, no car hire in Africa is
permitted, as the company
prefers the traveller to either
be escorted by the host
country or by a reputable
shuttle/bodyguard.
She says the TMC is also
linked to ISOS and therefore
every request for travel into
Africa is tracked and the
minute a ticket is quoted on,
it is automatically tracked.
The TMC in conjunction with
ISOS will then send out
travel alerts and risk factors
for each destination.
Heidi says there is
huge value in the TMC’s
involvement. “Although the
travellers are tracked via
ISOS in conjunction with
the TMC, the TMC needs to
keep in constant contact with
the traveller to ensure the
traveller’s safety in the case
of an emergency,” she says.
Heidi highlights that the
services of a reliable TMC
as well as a tracking system
are imperative for the African
market. A recent example of
this was a traveller who was
in lock-down in Burkina Faso.
“We had a traveller in
Burkina Faso recently, who
had to be evacuated from the
country. There was political
unrest and the government
closed everything down.
The traveller was in a total
lockdown in his hotel room
and we had to arrange
for him to get alternative
flights, which was not
possible as the airports
were all closed down.
Between the ISOS, TMC and
local hosts, we eventually
arranged a flight once the
airport was reopened,” says
Heidi, highlighting that the
communication between
the TMC, ISOS and Air
Liquide Southern Africa was
absolutely imperative in
solving the situation.