The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) and African Business Travel Association (ABTA) have formalised a strategic partnership aimed at expanding each other’s influence within the travel industry and supporting activities of mutual benefit to their respective membership.
Representing over 95% of the retail travel sector, including most of the large retail travel consortia, ASATA’s strategy of Effective Communication, Member Support, Partner Relations, Consumer Awareness and Regulation will receive a boost with the contribution of ABTA in such important initiatives as training and research, explains Otto de Vries, CEO ASATA.
“An informal and mutually beneficial partnership has long existed between ASATA and ABTA with founder, Monique Swart, assisting ASATA with initiatives such as the 21st Century Travel Agent study and ASATA conference participation. With this formalised collaboration, the two associations will work much closer together on strategic projects that will benefit both ASATA and ABTA members in future.”
The closely linked sectors of the travel industry will benefit from greater joint engagement as a result of the collaboration, says Monique. “By bringing members of ASATA and ABTA together to talk about future industry requirements and trends, and current issues, and creating awareness of these through research and training, we believe we will be stronger together, than focusing our efforts separately, hence the need for greater and more formalised collaboration with ASATA on various fronts.”
