The 1999 ABTA Convention in Cairns, Australia is nearly upon us. And although it will be a thoroughly professional and business-like event, it will perhaps be just a little bit dull.
Now, in the good old days, the convention was a dangerous ground, second only to the Trades Union Congress conference in Brighton and the Labour Party in Blackpool as the place for a good old us-and-them punch up; left versus right; old versus new; agent versus operator; and, it must be said, north versus south.
Alas, those days are no more. Then, the few partners (or as they used to be called, wives) were packed on a coach tour to some cultural attraction, while the members (the boys) spent the morning laying into each other. Afternoons in those days were for laying into the hospitality.
Brighton might have spent a week fighting on pay, Blackpool on clause four. But everywhere from Malaga to Palma, from Sorrento to Budapest, there were only three topics worthy of the ABTA fight – the appalling levels of commission, the innate wickedness of tour operators and the undeniable uselessness of ABTA itself. The latter manifest itself in comments such as ‘Thomson won’t pay me more than 10% and what’s ABTA doing about it? Nothing, that’s what.’
Many a foreign promenade has seen the glorious sight of the then chairman of the Travel Agents’ Council marching off, surrounded by doting council members, to some poor tour operators’ cocktail party. There he would beat hell out of his host and his host’s drinks tray, before doing the same at some unsuspecting airline’s dinner. In the morning he would be surrounded by even more acolytes and a few stray trade press reporters, in the presidential suite of the best hotel in town, talking of revolution.
Revolution in Sorrento
And revolution nearly came. The Russians may have had St Petersburg and the French the Bastille; ABTA had Sorrento.
In 1985 at the Convention in that city, Thomson announced a complete relaunch of its already published summer ’86 brochure at much lower prices. Much lower prices meant much lower commission earnings. Sorrento was up in arms. In the middle of a business session which included Thomson’s recently departed chief executive Paul Brett, the mighty Don Swinard, the then chairman of TAC, and a sort of Kentish Ian Paisley, rose from the body of the hall and, brandishing a copy of the offensive new Thomson brochure, demanded that every true-born British travel agent should take the devil Thomson’s brochures from their shelves and rip them to shreds and never sell Thomson again. The hall stood to applaud and roared in bloody approval.
Brett could smell the guillotine, and the masses were at the door of Greater London House.
Of course the revolution lasted no longer than it took the agents to get out into the Italian sunlight. In those days, if you didn’t sell Thomson you didn’t have a business. And Brett kept his head.
The current situation
How times have changed. In 1999, the dangerous state of commission levels is still with us, but now it is the operators who complain about how much they are being forced to pay. And agents moan less about operators, in part because most of them are owned by operators.
But in Cairns, ABTA, and its ability to organise a drinks session in a brewery, will still be a hot number for some. In particular it is the creation of the Blairish new ABTA, with its focus groups and its consultants, and the demise of the revolutionary councils and the appeal to big business, which might bring the remnants of the old guard to the battlements for the last time.
But change, if not revolution, is needed in Newman Street.
ABTA, whose past achievements have been crucial to the safe development of the business, is beginning to look a little warn and outdated. Chief executive Ian Reynolds and president Steven Freudmann admit as much.
“First, it became clear,” said Freudmann, “that ABTA had to streamline its operation.
“The whole structure, although in theory very democratic, did not give ABTA the accountability that was needed,” added Freudmann.
So, out with Tour Operators’ Council and TAC and the multitude of committees, to be replaced by a single board and ad-hoc groups as and when needed. These would be comprised of people not voted in, but instead chosen for their knowledge.
The board has 18 members, more than it takes to run Shell or Ford or British Airways. It is still too many.
“I’d love a more radical approach, with a board of say nine or 10, but the 75% rule [ABTAneeds approval from 75% of the membership] stops us,” said Freudmann.
But it is one way of tackling the thorny subject of big versus small.
Reynolds added:”We need the big companies to take a fuller part, especially at senior level.
“If 80% of the package industry is with a few big companies, you are not representing the industry if they are not at the centre of it.”
He is right of course. There is no good knocking on the Government’s door with one view, to be told that Lunn Poly were in last week with another.
“Getting the workers at the shop front to realise that the managerial big boys have real muscle that would be helpful to them, has always been a weakness in ABTA.”
But Freudmann said attitudes have changed dramatically and the smaller agent can see that if he is any good he’ll survive or be bought out, which is often the objective.
Consortium problems
As with new Labour, new ABTA members are all middle-class professionals now. And they belong to lots of different clubs.
“Frankly,” said Reynolds, “ABTA has been slow in adapting to the changing commercial face of the industry for both big and small companies, whether that’s vertical integration, consolidation, or consortia.”
Ah! The c-word, consortia or consortiums, as I prefer. There is no doubt that consortiums have got a bit under the ABTA skin of late or at least one in particular. Certainly they have provided a different sort of trade body focus – more commercial and less regulatory – calling into question the need for some of ABTA’s services. Its a touchy subject.
ARTAC’s replacement scheme for ABTA’s own Bond Replacement Scheme is not a subject to be raised with the president when he has a mouthful of soup as the Travel Weekly editor and I found out.
But if some of their rivals’ claims are unfair, ABTA has surely been at fault as Reynolds admits, in not understanding more quickly that there are now many industry groupings as important, or even more important than ABTA, in the daily business lives of members.
One way forward is to encourage those other groups and associations to work more closely with ABTA.
“I have said before that ABTA might become the Association of British Travel Associations,” said Freudmann.
Reynolds labels it ‘the umbrella effect’, pointing out that the Confederation of British Industry already has a similar grouping of different trade interests which then reside under its overall umbrella.
A sensible idea perhaps, as may be the idea for ABTA to be more closely involved on behalf of its members in the development of e-commerce, the Internet and even a TV channel, like the one Harry Goodman is involved in.
But it all has an air of finding something to do.
Finding relevant things to do is obviously right, but words like baby and bathwater come quietly to mind.
It would be a pity, if not a crime, if in looking for new and exciting roles for its first-rate secretariat to perform, it took its eye off what it already does really well, no matter how boring it might seem.
ABTA’s successes
Some examples – during our lunch, Reynolds commented on the probable increase in failures this autumn. Who doubts that if they happen, ABTA will handle them with its customary great efficiency and minimum fuss for all concerned?
Listening, the other morning, to ABTA’s public relations supremo Keith Betton put Radio Four’s scare-mongering John Humphries in his place over millennium bug issues was an excellent example of how well ABTA performs on behalf of the industry as a whole, and in this case the public.
And those who have dealt with ABTA, as I had to do recently, on difficult issues surrounding licensing and bonding, can only be impressed with the knowledge, care and understanding with which those charged with looking after this vital area carry out their duties.
These are all important roles.
From the engine room to the bridge, the ‘good ship ABTA’ has actually never been in better shape. New ABTA, new board, new attitudes are all for the good. But old ABTA remains a unique trade association. Of course, one way to liven up things in Newman Street would be to give the secretariat more responsibility, and to consign the board to a much lower-profile role. But there is no chance of that.
“There has always been a suspicion in the past that some chief executives, not Ian, were making decisions for themselves,” said Freudmann. Not what you pay them for, apparently.
Of course one change is certain. Freudmann’s time as president is up in May. If he gets new ABTA voted in he will have achieved more than many before him.
But, where does he go to next? Not back to the agency counter that’s for sure. “Being president is far more fun than selling holidays,” said Freudmann.
Perhaps he’ll go somewhere with a nice expense account, said one wag. Perhaps they’ll send him to Brussels. He would do a good job for the association there, and the restaurants are the best in Europe.
TABLE: Heated debate: both Reynolds and Freudmann agreed it’s time for ABTA to follow the new Labour lead and prepare for change in order to make the association more accountable to its members
Name:Ian Reynolds.
Educated:Watford Grammar School and the London School of Economics where he obtained a BSc (Econ).
Career History
l 1968: joined IBM as salesman in London after an early career at Shell-Mex, BPand Haymarket Press. Various sales management roles in Midlands and the north.
l 1980s: served in several senior management positions with IBM Europe in Paris before returning to the UK.
l 1987-1994:director of IBM United Kingdom Holdings. He has also been a director of IBM Euroco-ordination, a director of the American Chamber of Commerce and a member of the advisory council of Imperial College’s Management School.
l 1994:retired from IBMand took up current appointment as chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents in September. He is also a director of ABTA’s Travel Training Company, which provides training across the trade, and a non-executive director of St Mary’s NHSTrust and the Family Holiday Association.
l He is a member of the British Computer Society and the Tourism Society, a fellow of the Institute of Directors, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a companion of the Institute of Management.
Name:Steven Freudmann.
Educated: Grove Park Grammar School and London University.
Career History
l 1967: opened his first travel agency, Majestic Travel, in Wrexham in 1967 and later opened a further three branches, including one in Germany.
l1994:sold two branches of Majestic Travel. One of Majestic Travel’s branches is in Deeside College of Further Education, where Steven acts as an occasional lecturer in travel and tourism.
l1989: became chairman of the northwest region of ABTA.
l1992:appointed chairman of ABTATravel Agents’ Council.
l April 1997:elected ABTA president.
l Steven is a director of the European Travel Agents Association, the Travel Training Company, the ABTAInsurance Company and North Wales Tourism. He is a member of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s advisory tourism forum.