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| Lucille Sive |
In early December, Lucille Sive, CEO of Lion World Travel, was appointed to a new role as CEO African Division for The Travel Corporation North America. This role was created to support the ongoing growth of TTC’s two African wholesalers, although both African Travel, Inc. and Lion World Travel will continue to operate independently. Jim Holden will lead African Travel, Inc. and Sive will remain the president of Lion World Travel while overseeing both companies.
At the recent USTOA Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, Travel Agent sat down with Sive and Holden to get their insights on the latest trends in travel to Africa and how TravCorp is adjusting to new demands.
Africa and the Travel Corporation
Sive’s position, she said, was created to bring the two companies together and have them work as partners. “One company having a coordinated marketing effort is going to make a huge difference,” she said. “We are going after the trade with better products and more products. The buying power of the two companies together gives us something better.”
The Travel Corporation’s modus operandi, Holden said, is to acquire successful companies and then help them to continue to be successful while retaining their brand. Former TravCorp president Richard Launder believed in the “sanctity of the brand and the power of one,” Holden noted, which gave each company within the corporation the freedom to operate independently and develop unique ways of doing business.
“Then, for that little extra nudge to make you that much more powerful than you could be just on your own, you tap into all of the extra synergies that are available through the Travel Corporation,” he said. “That's exactly what's happening here, with me, now reporting to Lucille and [bringing] the two brands together, so that we can actually enhance now the synergy that applies to the power of one.”
As an example, Holden referenced the ongoing Ebola epidemic in Western Africa, and how the two companies can work together to present a united voice advocating continued travel to the continent as a whole.
“We're going to the same destination,” he said. “In addressing Ebola, how do we go about getting the message out? How do we go about getting the facts out? How do we respond to that issue? It can now be done in a collective fashion, in the 'power of one,' rather than two brands going at it individually. It’s a common challenge.”
With two Africa-focused companies under one umbrella, Sive opined that some agents may not have understood the different qualities of each. With the more united front, Lion World and African Travel will be able to focus on what makes each company unique, she said, and focus on different aspects of the business. “Probably African Travel will deal with trade. Mine will be more consumer-orientated, so that we'll split the two, so that there's one African company in transport dealing with the trade, which will be African Travel.”
Ebola and Travel to Africa
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| Jim Holden |
While the buzz over Ebola has calmed somewhat over the last two months, travel to Africa has seen a notable downturn. Sive is less concerned about cancellations (which, she said, have not been substantial) than she is about the overall lack of support for African tourism as a major business. If travelers are unaware of how safe much of Africa can be, they may opt to postpone their trip, causing a downturn across the board.
To that end, Sive said, she and Holden will work throughout the first quarter of 2015 to get the message out that Africa is open for business. “In January, February, March, we’ll do whatever we have to do to promote Africa and get it out there again.”
Holden, again, noted the value of the TravCorp partnerships in terms of providing support for affected businesses, and of local companies on location in Africa who were able to send up-to-date information about the situation so that the tour operators--and their agents--would be properly informed about the crisis.
“People have actually called me who want to go,” Sive said. “They just want to feel secure.”
No tour operator would try to push a reluctant traveler, she added, but once they have facts and figures readily available, most people feel secure in visiting the continent.
Looking Ahead
As U.S.-based travelers seek new experiences in Africa, they are finding plenty of hidden gems that offer top-tier experiences. In Tanzania, Holden said, Europeans have been exploring the country’s Southern Circuit, and Americans are catching on as well.
“Part of the reason for that is there are much better accommodations,” Holden said about the region. “There are better connections, better air service, more substantial operators in that part of the world.”
Tanzania as a whole is also stable and safe, Sive added, and the safari options in the Serengeti are continually increasing.
For 2015, Sive continued, the first quarter of the year will likely see a downturn in African bookings as the main selling period took place during the height of the Ebola fears in the U.S. She is more optimistic for the rest of the year, however, and said that the year’s fourth quarter will be “better than we've ever seen. I think people are going to come back with a vengeance. Africa is a hot destination, and people are going to travel. We're going to make sure that we have packages active, with itineraries that are just too good to pass up.”