There is now only one week left in the Abta contest between John McEwan and Daniele Broccoli to be the travel association’s new chairman.
It’s been interesting to see some of the emotions the contest has stirred when neither candidate is proposing anything particularly radical. Indeed, if you read what both candidates have to say, the differences are fairly subtle. Here are a few ideas that would have livened up the election:
- Involve its members more. I worked for years for an operator who saw Abta as a necessary evil; paid the subs, followed the rules and left the magazine in the corner of the canteen to be ignored by everyone. I’m sure there are other members like that. The election is a prime example of a missed opportunity. Why wasn’t there a debate one evening between the two candidates? It could have been open to members and non-members alike. It would have been a great opportunity to meet members and talk about Abta to non-members.
- Consider the whole bonding issue. Maybe Abta’s role could be to oversee its administration, but by taking the bonding out of its core it would allow it to…
- Diversify its membership. As Alex Bainbridge has pointed out, Abta could do with representing a greater cross-section of the industry. It should then…
- Have departments that reflect its membership. Scrapping the FTO with its archaic membership rules would be a start and creating a proper operators division. Presently, a lot of the agents believe Abta does more on behalf of the operators and vice versa.
- Get the lobbying sorted out. Whatever happens in the next year, politics is going to change. There is talk of PR, there is talk of MPs being given more independence over voting and it’s certain there are going to be a lot of new MPs in 12 months time. Abta needs to sort its act out now and not call sending the odd letter to the chancellor lobbying. Visit Britain has its own full-time Westminster lobbyist. Why not Abta?
- Work more closely with universities. Get some proper research done on things like the impact of APD and government policies. This will add teeth to its lobbying.
- Hold the Abta convention in the UK every other year. I understand the arguments about suppliers and tourist board funding, but at the moment the convention only attracts the hierarchy amongst those firms who have the time and money to send people. Staging it in the UK would enable more members to attend. It would allow people to attend for one or two days and be more likely to attract more than just senior members of staff.
- Be big at the WTM. If you are going to have your convention at some far-flung place, at least have a greater presence at the WTM. It’s the biggest travel trade show in the UK, yet for all the times I’ve been I can’t even remember seeing Abta there.
- Introduce individual membership. Why not? At the moment it is only those higher up in many member organisations that have any involvement with Abta. Concessions would attract a large number of individuals and boost revenue.
- Introduce student membership. Anything that attracts talented people into the industry would be worthwhile.
- Completely overhaul the Abta website. Is it just me that thinks it’s a bit of a mess at the moment? RSS feeds that actually work would also be helpful.
- Work more closely with the media. There’s virtually no travel on tv and when there is it is almost always negative (Watchdog or Holidays from Hell).
Of the two candidates, I have only met McEwan, some time ago. My preference would be for McEwan, simply because Brocolli seems to have based his whole campaign on “little guy vs big guy”. There are enough petty divisions within the industry at the moment without Abta’s chairman causing greater rifts. Abta needs a chairman who can unite rather than divide.
