Mark Walsh, group exhibitions director, Reed Travel Exhibitions and organiser of Arabian Travel Market, continues with his monthly column exclusive to TTN
WITH current trading conditions perhaps the harshest we have ever faced, many companies are prioritising month-on-month survival. Balance sheets have become documents which strike fear into wallet-watching executives. Marketers are squeezing every penny to within an inch of their lives...and then some.
However, this nearsightedness could be doing more damage that we think. The economy, and indeed the travel and tourism industry, is cyclical, swinging like a pendulum between good times and bad. Shaped by the socio-economic forces at work around us, this has been the case for decades, yet we always manage to find ways to sway the tide back in our favour; coming out leaner, meaner, smarter and stronger than before.
And this is true now, more so than ever. Our ability to hedge for the future is paramount; we must look through the mist and recognise the wealth of opportunities before us. Retention of staff is one such example. Arguably, the quick fix is to cut workforce to stabilise the bottom line. Great, in the short term, bad in the long. By removing good, loyal staff now, your future talent pool will be limited when the market picks up.
A company’s reputation is its treasure chest, its staff the front line soldiers defending it. Without a highly trained workforce, you’re left unguarded, with no time to catch up later. Jumeriah understands this. They’ve asked employees to take a reduction in working days to retain more staff, and I believe the fruits of this foresight will be reaped in the years to come.
Also, we need to be aware of new opportunities; how can we do that if we are blinkered by day to day survival you ask? I was recently in Bahrain as part of Arabian Travel Market’s road show, and the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture and Information stated it expects tourism to contribute 25 per cent of all GDP in the next 10 years - double what it is now. And, it wants to increase the amount of cruise passengers stopping in the country by 100 per cent in just two years. Opportunity knocks for those who know which door to open.
And this is true across the Middle East. I have long been a staunch supporter of this region and very vocal about its future role as a principle global tourism hub. Much of that comes down to governments throwing their weight behind tourism. Dubai’s success is well documented, but if we look at what NTOs in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are doing, let alone organisations in the UAE such as Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, it is groundbreaking.
This market, undoubtedly, continues to be the one to watch. I believe it is this factor that has been the underlying catalyst in Arabian Travel Market’s growth over the years.
ATM Diaries by Mark Walsh