| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 03/07/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 55 |
| Copyright: Other |
meetthe
MD
This week: Jason Fry, Alpha International Accommodation
Age: 28
I left school at 16 with only two O’ levels and no real insight into my own future.I went to a local further education college to study for two more O’ levels and three A’ levels, although I was still not sure what to do about my future.
I eventually settled on what I considered to be a vocational course. The course was travel management with a business bias and the vocation turned out to be that of a travel agent
Like so many college graduates, I was left at the end with a certificate I wasn’t sure was going to be any use to me. In 1993, I saw a job advertised for Evergreen Travel Services in Sheffield. This seemed to be a position and a company with potential.
The position of reservations clerk, answering the phones and taking reservations within an exciting environment, proved to be a valuable foundation. I enjoyed the job but also wanted more responsibility. I had made this clear at my interview and within six months I was offered the position of sales supervisor.
This was a more hands-on role and I was able to get involved in pricing, advertising, recruitment and other jobs that made the position particularly fulfiling.
Evergreen, at this time, was a fairly new tour operation and only had 10 full-time members of staff, split between London and Sheffield.
The company was expanding and it was exciting to be part of a new team. We were developing new destinations, brochures, overseas staff and the job was proving to be both exciting and demanding.
I actually feel very lucky to have been involved in the whole operation, from fledgling stage through to fully functional tour operation.
During this period I learned so much, being able to manage staff in the way I have always believed they should be. In a very short space of time, I was able to develop key management skills.
It was a fantastic learning curve and far more effective than continual higher education.
The travel industry is fairly demanding but often very rewarding. I found this to be true during my time at Evergreen.
It is very difficult for small, independent companies to compete with the large organisations that control the market. The main outlet for selling our large capacity of seats and accommodation was via Teletext, which is what I would call a dumping ground for late offers and not the best source to sell a rather large capacity of seats and beds.
This is a problem with smaller companies as a whole, not taking on the new areas of distribution. A rather topical example and one close to my own heart is the Internet. Articles and adverts tend to focus more on this area of distribution, as well as the ludicrous figures being associated with the dot-com companies like lastminute.com. It is a fascinating area we should all be looking at in much more detail. It opens up the whole world to the travel agent. A major mistake is to believe you have conquered the Internet when you have designed a site and registered it with a couple of search engines.
Time and money should be spent on investigating the Web and what it can do for you.
I made the same mistake with Alpha International Accommodation Ltd, by setting up a site that showed a limited selection of our accommodation and left it at that, expecting hundreds of requests from around the world – not so.
We have now developed an on-line booking facility, featuring most of our accommodation and last-minute availability. This enables companies like Alpha to offer product to agents and the general public 24hrs a day, 365 days a year.
We are now arriving in the morning to find we have sold accommodation overnight. The site offers commissionable prices to agents so they can book holiday accommodation over the Internet for their clients, showing them pictures, descriptions and the prices. The next step will be access to suppliers enabling a continuous electronic loop. Companies should harness not fear the Internet and everything it has to offer.
CURRICULUM VITAE
1991: travel management course with business and finance modules at New College, Durham.
MY TOP TIPS
l Harness the power at your fingertips – the Internet is there for you and your business.
* Be pro-active, listen to your markets requirements and act upon them.
* Listen to everybody and select the best advice and act upon it.
* You get what you settle for.
* Try to keep learning from those around you.
* Work hard to get where you want to go and keep working to stay there.