Avasa closes its convention with good business and recovery prospects
About 500 professionals, including travel agencies, partners, collaborators and national and international tourist destinations, gathered in Sitges this Friday and Saturday for the 24th Avasa Travel Group Convention. The meeting served to confirm the good prospects of recovery for the sector and is the starting point for resuming face-to-face professional events.
Carlos López Bahillo, general manager of the Avasa group was very satisfied with the success of the event: “Taking into account the current situation, marked by the coronavirus and the basic conflict in Ukraine, to be able to hold a meeting of these characteristics and to have the presence of representatives of practically all our agencies and collaborators is a éxito”.
López Bahillo explains that “for many of the attendees, this convention is the first big post-pandemic professional meeting they attend so we fulfill our goal of reconnecting with all of them”.
In this sense, many of the participants agree on the good business prospects and recovery of the sector. There have been many signs of enthusiasm and optimism that we have received these two days," explains López Bahillo. Both suppliers and agencies are very happy with the outcome of this meeting, which this year has been marked by professionalism and innovation," he added.
On Friday it was the turn of experts in different areas that put on the table several current issues, such as technology, sustainability and travel safety. Speakers included Katia Estace, chief commercial officer at Aon; Mar Muñoz, technology & innovation managing director at Ávoris; and Teresa Parejo, head of sustainability at Iberia. The session was moderated by David Vidal, commercial director of Amadeus Spain and Portugal.
On the other hand, Jesús Nuño de la Rosa, former president of El Corte Inglés, and Carlos Garrido, president of CEAV, analyzed the ‘New challenges for travel agencies’ in the second round table discussion, moderated by the president of Avasa Travel Group, Abilio Álvarez. All of them agreed on the importance of management groups for travel agencies.
Friday's day was completed with trainings for agencies with six courses: ‘Co how to get grants for SMEs and what are the ingredients to succeed in the post-covid’ era, by Mercedes Tejero, manager of CEAV, and Nacho Barraquer «El Gefe», trainer, speaker, coach and mentor in Felicidad; ‘La importancia del marketing digital’ by Fernando Moreno, digital marketing, innovation and business development consultant; ‘Booking Avasa: News and operations’ by Elisabet Carbo´, director of Avasa Viajes, and Marta Sa´ez, head of Avasa Booking; ‘Current destinations and how to make the sale profitable’, by Marien Riera, director of contracting’;n en Avasa Travel Group; ‘App Travel Book by Avasa’, given by Mar Muñoz, from IT Travel Services, and ‘Agency well informed, proper management guaranteed’, with Ine´s Aguinaliu, lawyer specializing in tourism law at Tourism & Law.
On Saturday morning, the traditional workshop took place, with the participation of nearly a hundred companies, including suppliers and tourist destinations, which presented their latest news and most outstanding products to the attendees.
The day on Saturday was completed with the presentation of Avasa, a session in which López Bahillo, with Jose Corbacho as master of ceremonies, reviewed the evolution of the company and its products; the evolution of the group in the last two years, marked by the pandemic, and took stock of the new tools and functionalities that the group has made available to its associates.
This year the convention has had a website and a free application to consult all the information, participate in the chat or evaluate the training sessions.