AIG has said agent apathy about selling lucrative ancillary products such as travel insurance was the reason it stopped sponsoring the Dubai Travel and Tour Agents Group (DTTAG).
Agent members were too obsessed with airline-related issues, even though most carriers don’t even pay them commission anymore, making their interest in travel insurance a low priority said AIG’s travel insurance manager for the Arabian countries, Nusrat Ahmed.
“We didn’t see the value of continuing with DTTAG sponsorship this year – we have decided to see how things go and maybe next year we will review the sponsorship,” she told Arabian Travel News.
“We would have liked to have worked with DTTAG agents on new programmes and incentives and given them more privileges, but travel insurance was not a priority for them.
“All they wanted to talk about was issues with IATA and the BSP, which is really amazing, because airlines don’t even pay them commission anymore when we can give them a value add.”
Ahmed continued: “Agents just don’t take travel insurance seriously – there are a lot of changes that need to happen in terms of their mindset. They are from the old school and their skills need updating.”
DTTAG manager Leo Fewtrell concurred with Ahmed’s poignant comments.
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“I think AIG is right; the company did not really get the value out of DTTAG it would have liked,” he said.
“Too many agents have their heads stuck in the sand – they are too focused on selling tickets and they don’t take advantage of other value adds [like travel insurance].”
Fewtrell said he was also angry that many Dubai agents still refused to become DTTAG members, but tried to use its services never-the-less.
“These agents ring me up for advice, but they won’t even pay the two thousand dirhams for the DTTAG membership fee, which would male them be part of the solution to the problems they have,” he added.
The need for travel agents to upgrade their skills as purported by Ahmed and Fewtrell will be debated at the live panel session/debate at Arabian Travel Market.
Taking place in the seminar theatre in hall one at 12 noon on Thursday May 7 – Travel Agents’ Day – the session will be hosted by Arabian Travel News senior group editor Gemma Greenwood.
Panelists taking part in the session entitled ‘The skills gap: agency managers who don’t train their staff will pay the price’, include Fewtrell, TRS Consultancy director Sundar Vasudaven, Kanoo Travel manager UAE and Oman Sunil D’Souza, Alpha Holidays & Travel general manager Fabian Fernandes, Dnata manager non-air product Nick Sheppard, Oman Tourism GCC representative Mark Senior and Travelport GDS regional training manager for the Middle East, Ibrahim Marmoush.
All travel trade professionals are welcome to join the debate.
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