8 TRADE TALK Edouard du
8 TRADE TALK Edouard du Coudray Wiehe T.O. & Product Director, Voyage Privé Italia Fatima Fernandez Marina Commercial & Contracting Manager - Cities - for Traveltino Italy’s Luxury Travel Specialists Habla Tourism? Voyage Privé Italia is the fast expanding Italian branch of Voyage Privé Group, the European leader in private sales of travels exclusively for its 20+ million members. Within Voyage Privé in Italy, together with his team, Edouard du Coudray Wiehe is in charge of business development and contracting for mid- and longhaul destinations, including accommodation, ground services and airlines. We asked him why he comes to ITB Berlin. Fatima Fernandez Marina is Commercial & Contracting Manager - Cities - for Traveltino (Santa Cruz de Tenerife). We asked her to tell us a little more about her organisation and what she’s looking for at ITB Berlin. ITB Berlin represents a key occasion to meet with many consolidated partners, define and study business opportunities with potentials and source new contacts and leads. ITB is a strategic moment in each season: being the largest travel exhibition in Europe, it grants extensive scale and a mine of opportunities. Meeting with professionals from all over the world is certainly a precious source of inspiration. Especially for a company that likes to define its sales model as inspirational, among other things. I understand you are particularly interested in luxury travel. Why do you think there is such strong growth in this sector? Luxury travel, generally speaking, is one of the fastest growing segment within the travel industry and the drivers are mainly: - the booming of investments in capacity on the offering side (many more destinations are targeting this clientele and competing with traditional spots) - innovations with strong focus on product and new concepts that fit more closely to specific segments of travellers within the luxury field - besides, similarly as what can be observed in the fashion industry, players are developing offerings labelled as “affordable luxury” and obtain an expansion of potential customers On the demand side, as Voyage Privé’s double digit growth pace demonstrates, in Italy customers wish to distinguish themselves and ITB BERLIN IS A STRATEGIC MOMENT IN EACH SEASON: BEING THE LARGEST TRAVEL EXHIBITION IN EUROPE, IT GRANTS EXTENSIVE SCALE AND A MINE OF OPPORTUNITIES. upgrade their experiences. When it comes to travelling, they expect flexibility, high level services and an experience they can proudly share on social networks. For us, it is essential to make Voyage Privé’s customers feel special when travelling with us and thus to contract accordingly with our suppliers Traveltino is a Spanish tour operator contracting for the brands we have in our group: Logitravel (B2C), Traveltool (B2B) and Smyrooms (International B2B). Our contracting team is attending the fair and will organise meetings with different companies: International hotel chains such as Hilton, AccorHotels or Marriott, local partners, DMCs and incoming agencies, cruises organisers, etc. Which destinations are you mainly interested in? We are mainly interested in Europe and the Americas, but we need to increase our portfolio in Asia, ME and Africa. At ITB, some colleagues from other departments will attend as well, to organise meetings with DMCs and tour operators. What general trends are you noting in terms of consumer demand? D e m a n d h a s b e e n increasing over the past two years, especially in Northern European markets. Demand data for Spain continues to increase significantly in recent months and the summer season 2017 is expected to be even better than last year. How important is ITB Berlin as a source of business and inspiration for you, and why? ITB Berlin is a great point for the demand overview and the forecast for the summer and winter seasons. The m o s t i m p o r t a n t t o u r operators are attending the fair and that gives me a global view of the next year business options THE SUMMER SEASON 2017 IS EXPECTED TO BE EVEN BETTER THAN LAST YEAR. ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 9 th March 2017 www.itb-berlin-news.com
TRADE TALK 9 Hopping Around the Planet Hakan Bakar Managing Director Anex Tour GmbH Australia’s Flight Centre Travel Group leverages ITB Berlin in the search for exciting new product Natalie Gosselin Product Manager & Team Leader - Global Product Flight Centre Travel Group Anex Tour Announces New Airline at ITB Berlin Natalie Gosselin, Product Manager & Team Leader, Global Product, Flight Centre Travel Group, in Sydney, Australia, has a responsibility for contracting hotels and ground handling options for the group’s global wholesale leisure businesses. We asked her to tell us what she’s looking for at ITB Berlin this year. At ITB Berlin, I’m looking to discuss opportunities with my existing hotel contacts, but also source new, exciting product to add into our range. I’m also keen this year to explore new destinations for us to sell. You are particularly interested in luxury locations. Why do you think the luxury market is growing as quickly as it is? The average customer these days has higher and higher expectations for their holiday getaways and as an industry I think we’ve risen to the challenge of providing them with great product at better than ever prices. People are willing to take maybe one less trip a year but to go that little bit extra in terms of price to stay somewhere really cool and exciting. What trends are you noting in terms of demand? I work specifically in the Asia space, and we’re seeing increased interest in “new” destinations that once were seen as niche or simply too hard - for example Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan and more recently India and Nepal are back on a lot of people’s radar. How important is ITB Berlin as a source of business and inspiration for you, and why? I really enjoy ITB Berlin for many reasons. It’s great to see so much product under one roof, including destinations I may never get to - as a self-confessed travel junkie this is not helping me reduce my bucket list of go to destinations in any way. Professionally however I find that the suppliers are there to have serious conversations and do business - the time of year is great also as I’m formulating my contracting and destination plans. The atmosphere of the event is also thrilling - there’s a definite buzz in the halls and the excitement is contagious Anex Tour GmbH is a new German package tour operator, based in Düsseldorf, which will be starting operations with its own airline - AZUR Air - as of April 2017. We asked Managing Director Hakan Bakar to tell us a little bit about the background to the company. Our Dutch holding company has been successful in the tourism industry in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia for 20 years and is finally coming to Germany with this experience. Our aim is that our guests get all services from one single source – starting with their flight until the support at the destination. With our experience and excellent contacts in many d e s t i n a t i o n s , w e h a v e established a very good reputation as a reliable business partner. For this, we work with well know hotel chains as Bahia Principe, Barceló Hotels & Resorts, Iberostar, Lopesan and Sheraton. What are your key aims at ITB Berlin this year? The ITB 2017 will be the perfect platform to present our new company and our great portfolio, including the announcement of our new winter destinations. We will meet business partner from around the world, but even more important is to present our to travel agents. Of course we have also the first opportunity to present ourselves to our potential clients which should plan their holidays with Anex Tours. W h a t a r e y o u r k e y differentiating factors? The most important USP is that our guests will receive all services from a single source - starting with the flight with our own airline through the transfers to the hotel and the airport to the on-site support by our own tour guides. Apart from this, we are 100 % in favour of travel agency sales because we strongly believe in that sales channel, which includes advice and service ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 9 th March 2017
