Trade apathy blamed for lack of training

Travel industry experts came together at Arabian Travel Market in May to discuss the need travel trade training.

Speaking at the training seminar, hosted by Arabian Travel News senior group editor Gemma Greenwood, TRS Consulting managing director Sundar Vasudaven said the arrival of a service charge environment meant clients had “higher expectations” and thus better trained staff.

However, the panel concurred that training opportunities in the GCC were limited and Oman Tourism GCC representative Mark Senior said staff knowledge was poor. “Unless training is brought to the forefront of each agency’s business priorities, many will struggle to offer a standard of service that people will pay for,” Senior added.

Kanoo Travel Group country manager Sunil D’Souza agreed that a “well-trained workforce” was needed to face “emerging challenges”, but despite this DTTAG manager Leo Fewtrell said the vast majority of the regional travel trade did not currently invest in training.

Former Al Futtaim Travel manager Mike Booker said the trade had been apathetic in its response to the financial crisis and needed to “invest time and money in training and pay staff a salary that’s worth working for”.

There was a call by D’Souza for a training school for the trade, by the trade.

“But there needs to be more commitment from travel agencies and staff retention needs to be improved,” he added.

While all panelists agree that training was required, they could not agree on who should pay for it.

“It all comes down to money,” said Sundar, adding that “for agents, ignorance is bliss because they don’t have the funds to provide training”.

Fewtrell said DTTAG needed support from government bodies as well  sponsorship from key industry stakeholders as it couldn’t fund agent training on its own.