ASATA, ABTA membership top of mind for corporates selecting a TMC

©HONGQI ZHANG via 123RF

At least 70% of those corporates surveyed further indicated that if a TMC was not an accredited ASATA member, they would not be allowed to tender for their company’s business.

In order of priority, respondents also listed the criteria most important to the service received from their ASATA-accredited TMC as being:

1. Achieving value for money and savings
2. Transparency and Trust
3. Professionalism
4. Sound business practices
5. Expert Guidance

Both associations benchmarks for travel buyers

Both associations represent professionalism in our industry and are benchmarks for travel buyers when considering the appointment of a TMC, says Otto de Vries, CEO ASATA.

ABTA founder, Monique Swart, highlights the reputation that ABTA and ASATA have within the corporate travel sector. “Travel buyers trust these two bodies do a great deal to elevate the level of the industry across South Africa.”

The successful collaboration between ASATA and ABTA is adding meaningful value to the industry, which “further highlights the message of engaging with industry professionals that are members of our associations.”

Respondents to the survey say these are the greatest benefits of ASATA:

• 81% believe the association ensures credibility of the industry
• 63% indicate that ASATA ensures the professionalism of the industry.

“I think there is still a lot of work to do, but the synergies between both associations are vast and thus the collaboration makes perfect sense for most industry professionals,“ explains Otto.

“Our vision is to improve communication and the business relationships between TMCs and travel buyers. With ASATA’s focus on the TMC community and ABTA’s strong corporate following, combining our efforts to bring these two sectors together more regularly and encouraging meaningful interactions like the ABTA/ASATA focus group recently, will see that these objectives are far more likely to be reached,” concludes Swart.