Marketplace for the traders of dreams

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 27

Marketplace for the traders of dreams

By LES BLOXHAM, travel editor, who attended the twenty-first Discover America International Pow Wow in Las Vegas as a guest of Continental Airlines and the Travel Industry Association of America.

Planning an American holiday — a “package tour,” perhaps, with a stopover in Hawaii, coach trip through California, and a couple of nights in the casinos of Las Vegas? Each year, thousands of New Zealanders visit the United States on such packages, but rarely does one bother to consider how all the components of a holiday — flights, coaches, hotels, transfers, sightseeing, and entertainment — are assembled into one tidy and, hopefully, trouble-free deal.

It’s a fair . bet they were all negotiated a year or so ago at America’s biggest annual wholesale travel market, the Discover America International Pow Wow.

This one-stop shopping mall allows international tour operators — the buyers — to negotiate contracts with representatives .of travel companies and organisations throughout the United States. They are the sellers. Their wares are big business and much in demand.

At this year’s Pow Wow, for instance, which was held over three days in Las Vegas two weeks ago, buyers and sellers conducted 35,000 20-minute business sessions and signed deals at the rate of SUSI.S million a minute. By the time the doors closed on the third day, the total value of contracts sealed had exceeded SUSI.2 billion. New Zealand was one of 50 countries with buyers on the floor, represented by executives of 27 tour wholesalers and operators based in Auckland and Christchurch. Along with 1000 other international buyers, New Zealand’s delegates were able to negotiate the best possible deals and find new attractions for their clients in the 800 elaborately set-up booths. Pow Wow has become an event and a place so large and so comprehensively representative of the American travel industry that it is laid out in the approximate shape of the United States — “just round the edges and square the corners a little” — allowing

the buyers to walk from Maine to California, or from Seattle to Sarasota on one giant, 19,000 square metre showroom floor.

A profile of American delegates at the annual Pow Wows, conducted by the co-ordinating organisation, the Travel Industry Association of America, reveals that more than 95 per cent are senior marketing executives.

“They have the power to make decisions on the spot; they don’t have to call back to headquarters for authority,” said the association’s retiring president, Mr William Toohey.

“That’s one of the reasons international buyers like the Pow Wow so much — they know they are going to be dealing with someone who has the authority to make a deal.” Likewise, these suppliers of holiday dreams know that the international buyers are going to deliver: that they will fill seats on planes and rooms in hotels, and channel their travellers to attractions like Disneyworld, Sea World, and Universal Studios. Delegates can attend a Pow Wow only by invitation: a combination of business, science, and ritual filters out the international registry. “Visit U.S.A.” committees located in major markets around the world carefully select companies that have proven their ability to generate visitors to America, or have the potential to do so.

Contracts usually involve packages and rates for 12 to 18 months in advance. The good news for New Zealanders, provided there is no dramatic fall in the value of the kiwi dollar, is that American suppliers have generally held. their prices to last year’s level. This will mean that the cost of an American holiday will remain even more competitive than other much closer destinations that have increased rates by 20 to 30 per cent.

“Everything is looking reasonably rosy,” said Mr Les Holt, managing director of Flexiplan Holidays, Ltd, in Auckland. “We have got some exciting new American products at very competitive rates."

Mr Kiven Riley, managing director of Direct Reservations, Ltd, also left

ABOVE: Some of the 900 travel booths that were set up in the Las Vegas Convention Centre for the 1989 Pow Wow. The show enables international tour operators to negotiate under one roof, deals and holiday packages with sellers from all over the United States. More than SUSI.2 billion of business was transacted in three days.

RIGHT: Three days of business sessions ended on a light note with a spectacular Disney dinner performance. One of the stars, Minnie Mouse, is shown with (from left) Ms Lois Waterworth (formerly of Christchurch), the executive manager of Stars Travel International in Auckland, Mr Les Probert, marketing manager of Thomas Cook (NZ), Ltd, and Ms Eve Tinsley, consolidation manager of Tek Travel, Ltd, Auckland.

Las Vegas feeling more than satisified with the deals he had signed up. Mr Les Probert, marketing manager of Thomas Cook (N.Z.), Ltd, described the Pow Wow as. the “best trade show in the world.”