Recruiting the right people into travel is becoming harder as the industry is “not as sexy” as it was 15 years ago.
That was the claim by Steve Barrass, managing director of Gold Medal Travel Group, during a panel debate at The Travel Network Group conference.
Reflecting the ‘Obsession’ theme of the conference, he told delegates that Gold Medal was obsessed with “cash, service, and people”.
His comments came in response to a question about the future, and he said Gold Medal wanted to invest in the right people and attract the right talent – but encouraging the right people into travel was harder.
Jo Rzymowska, managing director of Celebrity Cruises, UK & Ireland, said her company’s future plans included investing in its trade partners, and finding affluent customers “who want to pay for the finer things in life”.
She said that getting Wi-Fi for passengers on ships is a “challenge”, but noted that some people like to be Wi-Fi-free. Also, brochures continue to play a role as customers research their holidays, along with websites, and review sites, she added.
Simon Ferguson, managing director, Travelport UK & Ireland, said the future for Travelport was to develop new and different types of content.
He also flagged up wider technology trends that will affect agents, such as wearable computing devices and social media.
“There will be 485 million wearable computing devices by 2018,” he said. “And we’ve seen the first ‘Instagram hotel’ opening, in Sydney.”