The Association of Independent Tour Operators will return to hosting a joint overseas conference next year after a poll of its agents, operators and affiliate members.
The joint conference will be held from June 11-14, 2015. The destination has yet to be decided although several short-haul and long-haul destinations are currently under consideration.
Aito held its first joint conference in 2011 in Vilnius, Lithuania, and a second in Madeira in 2012, before returning to separate conferences.
This year it held a conference in June, primarily for travel agency counter staff, and in November, aimed at tour operators and business owners.
Following the appointment of Gemma Antrobus, managing director of Haslemere Travel, as chairman of Aito Specialist Travel Agents, earlier this year, the association decided to poll its agent, operator and affiliate members on their conference preferences for 2015.
Aito chairman Derek Moore (pictured) said: “The majority said they wanted one conference. Hopefully it will be a win-win situation.”
He stressed lessons had been learned from the two previous joint conferences and that there would be “quite a bit of reworking” to ensure all members’ needs are met. “The feedback was for the most part positive but there were some concerns about the way we integrated some sessions and not others,” he said.
Although there will be combined opening and closing sessions, there will effectively be two separate conferences held with separate sessions for agents and operators to attend. Two thirds of Aito operators sell through the trade but a third do not work with agents.
“We are talking about ways for Aito Agents and Aito to work more closely together and the first evidence of this is the joint conference,” said Moore, adding that the conference could
He anticipated around 150 delegates attending the event.