Every year in April or May, the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) takes place in Dubai and five years ago, we arranged an afternoon meeting the day before the event for ITP partners. For many it was the first time they had met and after a short while there was plenty of interactive dialogue and discussion around commercial opportunities and shared challenges.

Based upon partners’ feedback we have continued with the Dubai meetings each year and they are attended by not only our partners in the Gulf region but any others who happen to be in Dubai for the ATM. This year the meeting took place on 23rd April and the agenda focused strongly on sales development. For example, Richard had prepared a list of clients in the region that could be suitable for regional consolidation. We are monitoring progress closely and hope that this exercise will result in new business opportunities.

Earlier this year, Richard and I were discussing how we could extend this meeting format to other areas and we suggested a meeting for our partners in Latin America in May. This had additional challenges in that, unlike Dubai, there was no Industry event to bring everyone to the same place at the same time. It also meant that almost everyone had to travel somewhere with the additional cost and time that would involve.

Our partner in Colombia, Swiss Andina Turismo, kindly offered to host the meeting at their main office on Medellin. We are very grateful for the support and hospitality of their MD, Hilda de Jaramillo, and her team and the result was a stimulating day with partners from Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador and Peru. The CEOs of ITP partners from Spain, USA and Canada also attended, contributed ideas and got to know their Latin American colleagues better.

The agenda covered ITP developments, specific Sales opportunities and other ideas for regional cooperation but we also wanted to hear from each partner about what they were looking for from ITP partnership. This resulted in many exchanges of ideas and suggestions which Richard and Ian have taken on board for the future.

As with ITP Annual Conferences, these meetings have been an excellent opportunity for ITP partners to network and build upon existing commercial relationships. Travel is a face-to-face business and meeting one another is always going to make it easier to do business together. We are planning to continue with this type of meeting in the future and as always would welcome any suggestions that ITP partners have for future meeting agendas.

Maritime Travel Services celebrates 15th anniversary.
ITP Netherland – Maritime Travel Services celebrated 15th anniversary in Lisbon in June.
ITP Portugal – TQ (Travel Quality) took care of our transfers and arranged a great tour for us on Saturday, including a speedy ride on the river Taag.
Lisbon was wonderful, we had a great time!

This year XL Turners Travel celebrates ten years as ITP’s South African partner.

“The travel business landscape is continually changing making local and international associations and partnerships more important today than ever before,” says Linda Edwards, Operations Director at XL Turners Travel.

“We have come a long way. Our company was established in 1954 to cater for the corporate travel requirements of the Turner Group’s clients. Today we are one of the country’s leading full-service Travel Management companies with 41 permanent staff members, head office is in Durban and regional offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg.”

“Our professional local and international affiliations, and prominent position in the South African travel industry, enables us to offer competitive cost-effective travel solutions while providing our clients with efficient, professional travel management.”

“XL Turners Travel is one of the very few travel agents in South Africa to be Certified ISO 9001 compliant, which ensures we control and measure the level of service and quality of work done and ensures that our products and services consistently meet customer requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.“

The new 546-room Kerry Hotel, Hong Kong opened its doors to guests in April as the city’s first urban resort, inspiring lifestyle pursuits with its outdoor living spaces and family activities whilst setting the tone for world-class business and meeting services. The debut of the hotel is an important milestone for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts as it marks its fourth property in the city and the new flagship hotel of the Kerry brand.

Conceived by internationally renowned interior designer André Fu and award winning architect Rocco Design, the new build 16-storey hotel is the first to open on the Kowloon waterfront since 1995. Providing guests with uninterrupted views over Victoria Harbour, the hotel’s multi-level podium design with extensive outdoor landscaped gardens connect the hotel seamlessly to public areas and physically embodies the hotel’s approach to “More Room For Life” and relaxed luxury.

The hotel is ideally suited and part of the ITP Preferred Hotel Programme offering dedicated rates and added values.

For more information on Kerry Hotel Hong Kong please visit:
www.shangri-la.com/corporate/press-room/press-releases/kerry-hotel-hong-kong-opens-today/

ITP negotiated rates at selected Shangri-La Hotels are available for bookings via the local ITP partners’ sales consultants and online

Thank you for reading this edition of our eNewsletter. Should you require further information or are interested in working with ITP please contact us via the details below.

Richard Lovelock
General Manager