WHAT an amazing situation. I have just returned from a week in the pleasant Australian town of Cairns and I didn’t realise that, during the period I was there, it was hosting two separate ABTA Conventions!
There is the one I went to, at which I attended every one of the well presented and informative working sessions, facilitated by an adroit presenter, and the other one attended by certain top tour operators.
Airtours Holidays managing director Richard Carrick, JMC managing director Simon Vincent, Thomson Holidays sales director Manuel Mascarenhas and your Guest columnist, Cosmos sales and marketing director Paul Riches, say they didn’t learn anything from their Convention sessions. They should have come to my Convention, where the sessions were packed with new and thought-provoking information of vital interest to all in the industry, even tour operators.
The sessions on insurance and legal issues, were on their own well worth the journey. Even the session by inspirational speaker, Amanda Gore, although her style was not to my personal taste, gave me new ideas about how I relate to others.
Still, they missed it. Can I suggest that they try to attend the ABTA Convention in Kos next year.
Richard English, REtraining, Reigate, Surrey