business. As the market becomes ever more competitive and with new distribution channels chasing business, the high street must be properly prepared to meet these challenges.
It is impossible to emphasise too strongly how important frontline staff are. Excellence in service provision requires an individual who comes equipped with, or who can be trained in, all the attributes our panel were seeking.
It was no coincidence that all our finalists come from successful agencies.
Of varying ages, they know what is expected from them and what they need to achieve their objectives. Their commitment was absolutely first class.
Those who seek to continually criticise the industry’s professionalism should be heartened by the commitment and enthusiasm of these finalists which, coupled with their professional abilities, shows what can be done.
It’s good to focus on the industry’s most important asset, its people, and to applaud their endeavours.
There is already plenty of the right attention to corporate recognition.
The winner, Sharon Morley of Wickers World Travel, will be presented with her prize at World Travel Market on Thursday 18 November, but I congratulate all the finalists.
The travel industry gets its share of bad press about poor service, inadequately trained and incompetent frontline staff.
Last week I was asked, with other industry colleagues, to judge applications from agency staff seeking to become the Discovery Agent of the Year, an award launched by World Travel Market and Travel Weekly.
Interest was considerable from owners, directors and managers keen to nominate their staff.
We were asked to interview six finalists and it was especially pleasing to see such high standards from each and every one selected.
Undoubtedly it was something of an ordeal to be sat in front of a panel of five judges and face a barrage of questions about their career over 30mins but all created an excellent impression.
We were concentrating on a number of key areas such as sales ability, customer service, product and industry knowledge, investment in training, personality and professionalism.
Each candidate would have made a worthy winner in different ways through their varied career paths and those who were unsuccessful this year have every chance of success in future as they gain more experience and add to their abilities.
It is essential to understand the level of contribution a trained and competent agency representative can add to a business. As the market becomes ever more competitive and with new distribution channels chasing business, the high street must be properly prepared to meet these challenges.
It is impossible to emphasise too strongly how important frontline staff are. Excellence in service provision requires an individual who comes equipped with, or who can be trained in, all the attributes our panel were seeking.
It was no coincidence that all our finalists come from successful agencies.
Of varying ages, they know what is expected from them and what they need to achieve their objectives. Their commitment was absolutely first class.
Those who seek to continually criticise the industry’s professionalism should be heartened by the commitment and enthusiasm of these finalists which, coupled with their professional abilities, shows what can be done.
It’s good to focus on the industry’s most important asset, its people, and to applaud their endeavours.
There is already plenty of the right attention to corporate recognition.
The winner, Sharon Morley of Wickers World Travel, will be presented with her prize at World Travel Market on Thursday 18 November, but I congratulate all the finalists.