Carla da Silva, Air Mauritius regional manager, Southern Africa and Latin America, presided over the formal proceedings of the awards, with much pride over the sterling achievements of the industry, despite yet another challenging year navigated through turbulent airspace. “In South Africa, we had local elections in 2016, currency volatility and devaluation - along with inflation and cost of living increases - which all impacted on travel decisions and patterns. Flat travel spend remains the forecast, coupled with an increased focus on return on investment (ROI) for the corporate sector.
• A reduction in travel in many corporations across South Africa, along with the rest of Africa
• Companies reducing their travel classes ~ economy for all as opposed to business class
• Businesses sending fewer staff on conferences and requiring that the one or two that are sent (as opposed to the usual four or five), to return and report back to their teams regarding what was learned during conference
“From a leisure perspective, the consumer is constantly shopping around for better deals and we have witnessed late booking patterns for holidays that were previously planned way in advance.”
Da Silva added: “From an Air Mauritius South Africa perspective, and despite all of the aforementioned challenges, Air Mauritius managed to sustain and grow the local business, with sincere and heartfelt thanks to our valued partners and loyal, long-standing friends. We aim to achieve budget by 31 March 2017, and to continue to increase our revenue, capacity, and frequencies in this market.”
Air Mauritius posted EUR28.1m for the first nine months of the current financial year. Seats offered increased by 7.5 percent to reach 586,002 and the load factor increased from 80 percent to 81 percent. Air Mauritius South Africa is set to achieve positive results for the full financial year.
A number of award categories were presented, as follows:
Platinum - Flight Centre Travel Group
Gold - Beachcomber Tours
Silver - LUX* Resorts & Hotels
Silver - Indian Ocean Island Holidays
Platinum - The Holiday Factory
Gold - Thompsons
Silver - Travelstart
Platinum - Serendipity Tours
Gold - One Stop Tours
Silver - Travel Counsellors
Platinum - Tourvest
Gold - Travel with Flair
Silver - Serendipity Tours
Platinum - Beachcomber Tours
Gold - Club Med
Silver - One Stop Tours
Platinum - Beachcomber Tours
Gold - The Holiday Factory
Silver - Flight Centre
Beachcomber Tours
One Stop Tours
Club Travel
Flight Centre Travel Group
Loyal Partner 2016
Exotic Vacations
Platinum - XL Millennium Travel
Gold - Harvey World Travel Blue Planet
Silver - SURE Giltedge Travel
Tamarin Seymour - Gold Travel Counsellor
Platinum - Bid Travel
Gold - Tourvest
Silver - XL Travel
Voyagers Zambia
Travelwise Botswana
Trip Travel
Blue Sky Travel
Mauritius High Commission South Africa
Australia & India
Platinum
Flight Centre
Australia and Kenya
Gold
Bid Travel
Madagascar & Hong Kong
Silver
Travel with Flair
India
Silver
One Stop Tours
India
Silver
Tourvest
The Saxon Hotel - Wesley Grobler
Miller Ackermann and Bronstein Attorneys - Mr. Bronstein
Now Media Group
Board of Airline Representatives South Africa - June Crawford
Glass Slipper Communications - Louise Churches
The Hunter Group - Shereen Hunter
VAULT Marketing - Justine Wilkins
IT Evolution
The Indigo Group
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA)
10 - XL Travel
9 - Tourvest
8 - Bid Travel
7 - Club Med
6 - Club Travel
5 - Cullinan Outbound Tourism
4 - World Leisure Holidays
3 - Flight Centre Travel Group
2 - The Holiday Factory
1 - Beachcomber Tours
Further to receiving top honours as the number one performer, Terry Munro, managing director of Beachcomber Tours, also humbly accepted the CEO Award. First introduced and presented to Munro in 2012, this year signals a fifth consecutive year that he has been recognised for his leadership qualities, complete business support of all Air Mauritius commercial interventions, as well as for his generosity of heart (and pocket) to a number of corporate social responsibility initiatives, as driven under the national carrier’s banner.
Air Mauritius is set to celebrate its 50th Anniversary this year, 2017. The enterprise, first incorporated on 14 June 1967, today carries 1.4 million passengers and more than 31,000 tonnes of cargo annually. Being a global carrier, Air Mauritius boasts an effective footprint in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, London, Paris, India, China, Reunion, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Amsterdam, and more.
In da Silva’s closing message to her travel trade colleagues and key industry stakeholders, she shared the following inspirational message: “I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge; dreams are more powerful than facts and that hope always triumphs over experience. The obstacles we faced in 2016, and indeed since our inception 50 years ago, will become the gateways and successful flight paths, that will lead to new beginnings in 2017.”
In terms of the next year’s annual awards; it would be difficult to raise the elevated benchmark set for 2016.
