More than 50 partners attend ITP conference
Travel management companies must continually remind clients of their relevance, Peter Dennis told the annual conference of ITP - International Travel Partnership in Prague.
Mr Dennis, e-Commerce Director for BSI, a corporate hotel booking agency, said: "TMCs bring the knowledge of caring for and looking after people.
"It is stating the blindingly obvious but you have to keep reminding your customers of this.
"Traditional travel agencies are struggling to stay relevant. You have to stay relevant. How many of you once a month get your people around a table and talk about your business and how you are going to change it?"
The three day event was attended by more than 50 partners and suppliers, among themAmadeus, Cornerstone, Rezidor, Carey Limousine, Cranley Group, eGlobalfares and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
ITP is a worldwide network of independent travel management companies with partners in 33 countries.
On a theme of Making it Happen, the agenda included presentations from recently-joined ITP partners from Australia, Abu Dhabi, Iran and Ireland while other presentations covered corporate social responsibility, data consolidation and the travel management cycle.
The theme of the conference was ‘Making it Happen' and the event featured interactive discussions while other presentations covered corporate social responsibility, data consolidation and the travel management cycle.
Mr Dennis told delegates: "You must be transparent. The customer is now full of knowledge and will say ‘I can get that cheaper fare myself'. So how do you reply?
"Customers at the end of the day are going to listen to other customers. What they say about your business, your airline, your hotel is going to be incredibly important.
"You must be part of this creative thinking because the social networking phenomenon is proliferating instantaneous commentary online. For intermediaries who wish to stay in business they must offer relevancy and added value".
Talking about technology providers, he said: "The GDS companies are focusing on becoming more generalist technology providers now as they continue to struggle to maintain full control of content and inventory.
"You do need to continue to work closely with GDS' as they are the Industry's technology leaders."
Looking to the future, Peter Dennis said the rapidly changing world could see the end of e-mail as we know it in three years and be replaced by interactive social network applications like Twitter and Google Wave.
To emphasise the speed of change, he said: "About five years ago, the PC was connecting with a cable linked to a single megabite modem.
"Now just around the corner is the super broadband which is going to be amazing. You will not need to be connected by a wire or a landline telephone.
"You will have access to rich information and media at anytime and anywhere."
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