The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) has announced that Chief Executive Officer Otto de Vries will step down after 14 years leading the organisation, staying on through to the end of 2027. De Vries has given the Board a year and a half’s notice, ensuring a smooth, well-planned handover for the Association’s members and industry partners.
The move comes as ASATA enters its 70th year and its new identity as the Association of Southern African Travel Advisors, reflecting the evolution of the profession from transactional booking to trusted, fee-based, expert-led travel advice. De Vries said it felt like the right time for new leadership to take the Association into this next chapter, which is why he is giving a year and a half’s notice now rather than a shorter one, well ahead of his actual departure.
ASATA Chair Sailesh Parbhu, Managing Director of XL Nexus Travel, said the timing reflected deliberate planning rather than disruption.
“Otto has been an extraordinary custodian of this industry’s voice for 14 years. He has come to us with a considered decision, a year and a half ahead of his departure: that ASATA’s next chapter should be led by someone else, with him ensuring the transition is seamless.”
Parbhu added that Otto’s record on behalf of members deserved to be recognised in its own right.
“What’s easy to underestimate in a CEO transition is the scale of what Otto has done, much of it advocacy work that happens quietly, in the background. Fourteen years of engaging on our behalf with National Treasury and IATA, through a pandemic, through SAA’s business rescue, and through every payment and procurement rule that could have gone against us instead of for us. That behind-the-scenes work is the standard the next CEO inherits.”
“It felt like the right moment for new leadership to take the Association into its next chapter,” said de Vries. “The direction ASATA has taken over these fourteen years was necessitated by where the industry found itself, through a pandemic and no small amount of change. I’ve given the Board a year and a half’s notice because I want members, partners and government stakeholders to have complete confidence in the continuity of ASATA’s work, and I’ve made myself available to assist with that work in whatever way the Board finds useful going forward.”
During his tenure, de Vries led ASATA’s advocacy on a number of issues affecting the sustainability of South Africa’s travel trade, including engagement with National Treasury, the Consumer Protection Act, the Protection of Personal Information Act, the industry’s COVID-19 response, the zero-rating of VAT on international flights, representation of members through the SAA business rescue process, UIF/TERS relief access, cross-border payment regulation, the Public Procurement Act, and the resolution of IATA’s local financial criteria for South African agents. He has also represented ASATA on international travel trade bodies on behalf of the World Travel Agents Association Alliance and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, alongside ongoing advocacy on distribution content changes and disintermediation.
