April news

This month is still clearly all about the Middle East situation as a resolution is not looking like it is going to be very quick.  This has slightly slowed down new enquiries and reduced conversion on running enquiries.  Consumer confidence is low as prices for everything rise and job security is an issue for some people.  The good news is that the situation is still seen as a short-term problem and while the knock-on effect may take some months to recover there will be some benefits such as significantly reduced airfares with ME carriers.  Most agents reported being down 30% - 40% in March but this was mainly due to staff spending time at least 30% - 40% of their time rerouting customers returning. From/via Middle East  This was pretty much complete by April so most were only 10% down in April so it is not all doom and gloom.  There will be a boom when this is over and all Middle East carriers drop their prices to get business back so DON’T PANIC!

May and June:

More agent training events both live and on-line planned with Southern World and Prestige.  Also, time to focus on all the agencies that I have been in contact with through these events to make sure that there is good follow-up and to get all staff involved, not just those that attended the events.