Ana First, MICE department manager Elite Travel

21/12/2010

“Our greatest value is our team since more than 20 professionals stand behind each project and this differentiates us from most of other DMCs in our country.”

As the incentive market is beginning its recovery after a tough year, BWMN wanted to take the pulse of this specific market and met Ana First from Elite Travel who shares with us her strategies and ideas.

BWMN: What kind of incentives do you propose in Croatia, what makes your country a popular MICE destination?

Ana First: In the past couple of years, Croatia experienced a transformation into a first class business travel destination. The reasons for considering Croatia as a perfect MICE destination lie in the blend of an amazing setting and modern facilities recently developed (numerous five stars hotels, conference resorts, cutting edge boutique hotels, haute cuisine restaurants etc..).
Croatia still has some of the old Mediterranean charm that other destinations in our vicinity may have lost due to the burden of being over popular.

I am always so thrilled when involved in incentive programs that can afford a combination of at least two destinations using preferably the sea as a way to commute from one destination to another. Program tailored like that gives me opportunity to present genuine Croatia but still very much on high level of service business clients expect.

BWMN: The incentive market was impacted worldwide by the downturn, how did you turn the situation around, what kind of measures worked for you? Did you go after different kinds of business (PCO activities, etc)?

Ana First: We have never been the kind of agency that sits down during difficult moments and waits for someone to magically drop work on us. We introduced a number of measures, starting from the easiest like cutting down the cost in our own backyard, to more challenging ones such as finding the ways to create interesting programs on the budget and finding markets to sell those programs.
We turned to more advanced technologies such as investing money into website optimization, start using video materials, social networks, e-mail campaigns etc. We revised our regular programs by adding more content to it on the same price which increased interest among travellers…Frankly, as much as 2008 was hard business wise, it felt good working closely with my colleagues in delivering solutions to overcome it.

BWMN: What are your sales strategies that ensure that Elite wins the business from other structures?

Ana First: We have developed over the years a strong research team in our company. Those smart people help all of us get the best possible insights in understanding the needs of our clients and offering them the best solution. Every new project starts with research and understanding the concept that the client wants to get delivered. Our greatest value is our team since more than 20 professionals stand behind each project and this differentiates us from most of other DMCs in our country. We sell a personalized service, which is so often crucial for the success of the event.

BWMN: Which markets are most interested in Croatia at the moment, and which new zones to you plan to develop for 2011/2012?

Ana First: European markets such as UK, French, German, Spanish are as interested in Croatia as always. Croatia has been on the radar for those markets for five years and is now getting on the loop for more distant markets such as India and China.
Our government has recently liberated the visa regime for Indian and Chinese citizens coming to Croatia, which will undoubtedly have impact on arrivals from those markets. I am confident that Government will soon expand no visa regime on the all year basis for other markets such as Russia and Ukraine if they want to have extended season. I also believe that by joining EU we may become even more interesting for distant markets such as the US and Canada as more flights will be, eventually introduced here.

BWMN: What are the difficulties facing DMCS when organizing events, given that the essence of your work relies on suppliers and partners?

Ana First: As question suggests, DMC relies on suppliers and partners. Although, we at Elite Travel have established quality control management and quarterly assessing performance of our suppliers, errors can happen. The key is how you deal with errors. The rule at Elite Travel is “Honesty is the best policy”. We encourage our suppliers to come to us with any problem they may experience while delivering service for us as we strongly believe that all problems can be solved when we put our hats together and come up with creative solution. Equally our conducts are transparent to our clients and partners. Other challenges may be related to certain governmental decisions such as imposing new taxations on travel services, increase of VAT or when national airline company decide to terminate certain flights etc. However, professionals and experts in our industry can make impact on those decisions too through smart advocacy campaigns.

BWMN: You strike us to be a very active and competent director, what is your background and training?

Ana First: My background is hospitality management but after graduation from college, my first job was in NGO sector as Executive director of organization that dealt with curbing corruption in public financing and bringing awareness to Croatian private enterprises about business ethics. The latter helped me a lot in my professional growth, especially when I decided to join the travel industry. I am very proud to be member of a company that nurtures business ethics, stimulates employees’ enthusiasm and creates environment for us to be active and grow.

BWMN: We are always talking about equal opportunities in business, do you ever feel you face extra challenges as a woman in the MICE industry?

Ana First: I cannot say that I ever experienced any obstacle or difficulty as a woman in the MICE industry. I believe that this industry presents equal challenges both to women and men.
Being very socially driven industry, we all rely on networking and sometimes you can run out of the topics if you find yourselves in the „boys club“. Luckily I am a fast learner and can talk with great enthusiasm not only about the work but about the latest developments in the Premiere league too.

www.elite.hr