The first CARTA conference was an intimate and very constructive affair. I had never been to Gibraltar before and I was interested to see the ‘Rock’.
Steady progress is being made to turn it from a military outpost to a tourist destination. New marinas and their related residential developments are being built and, over the next few years, we shall be seeing an enormous ‘smartening up’ of the whole area.
The tourism department has taken the right decision to target the short-breaks market.
The convenience of flying to Gibraltar, along with its duty-free status, will make it an attractive weekend destination, especially as it also gives easy access to Spain.
We all felt at home in ‘Gib’ and made the most of our few days away from the UK.
Some anxiety was expressed at the Conference that only a small percentage of the CARTA membership had attended. All in all there was about 100 of us.
But I cannot remember going to an overseas conference where so much was enjoyably packed into one day.
A conference of that size with delegates that know each other well means there is no reluctance from anyone to speak their mind. When people are prepared to open up about how they feel then a lot more progress can be made.
The conference was really a focus for the promotional relaunch of CARTA. As in every other association, there is a hardcore of members who know that before you can benefit from such a grouping you have to put a lot of effort into making it work.
As in every other association, the vast majority choose to be members, expecting to benefit, but are not prepared to put themselves out by giving their views and their time.
Once the word gets around as to how enjoyable and successful this conference was then I am sure that the one being planned for next year will have a much higher attendance, both among travel agency members and tour operators.
This conference was really for the retailer and we operators went along in order to sense how our retail agency partners were feeling and to have a couple of days where some frank exchange of views could take place.
There is a lot that CARTA can achieve and my feeling is that the association will be the perfect vehicle for those agents who are able to sell the products of the typical AITO member.
I suppose that what we are doing is hedging our bets. As tour operators we realise that the number of outlets we may have access to in the future will be severely curtailed. As retailers there is the worry that, at some stage in the future, there might not be enough product to sell because much of that product will be channelled through in-house retail branches.
Not all agents are suited to CARTA. If you speak to many of those who were there you realise that these agents are very focused, very close to their customers and very much a part of the community which they serve.
They have to work hard to satisfy a demanding client and what they are looking for is operators with whom they can work without worrying about the standards of service and quality. What both sides are looking for is stability in a very changeable world.