Emotions confident in Ghanaian travel and tour agencies
There is one company on the island of Mauritius creating avenues for Ghanaian travel and tour agencies to thrive with the help of South African Airways. Charles Benoni Okine (GB) caught up with the Managing Director of Emotions, Mr David Collard (DC) to understand more about his business.
Advertisement
GB - Can you tell a little about your company?
DC - Emotions Destination Management was formed four years ago. The Company comprises of professionals who have been at the service of the tourism industry for more than fifteen years, a team of 60 associates and four overseas representative offices in France, Scandinavia, Ukraine and United Kingdom respectively. We operate in both FIT and MICE segments and we handle approximately 15,000 passengers yearly with an important share targeting high profile customers. Our business concept revolves around redefining the role of a classical inbound tour operator into that of a handcrafted model whereby one to one service, attention to details and elegance are our earmarks.
GB - What makes it distinct from the rest in Mauritius?
DC - Emotions Destination Management provides for inbound ground handling services, including transfers, tours and hand-crafted circuits carried out on EXCLUSIVE basis only, as well as ensuring customer care services in-situ and post trips. We address the bottlenecks of a traditional ground handler through the uniqueness of our concierge services, whilst focusing on the assets typical to the destination through the five senses. No stone is left unturned to creating moments of truth and ultimately a stay full of emotions for our guests. Our philosophy resides in the fact of ‘blowing away’ the guests with a holiday experience to remember.
GB - Mauritius has opened its doors to Africans to experience tourism and business. How has your company positioned itself to serve tourists and businesses that come in?
DC - We mainly focus on the leisure segment since businessmen tend to have their own arrangements done directly or through the local firms. Regarding our positioning with the tourists, it is by visiting the different African countries and learning more about their expectations and travelling habits that we have learnt how to service them. In fact, I do travel quite regularly to Africa and meet with tour operators, travel agencies and airline companies.
GB - What is the relationship between your company and South African Airlines?
DC - SAA has been very supportive so far and we share with them this determination to make African tourists discover Mauritius. My thanks go to Mr Menon Ramasawmy from SAA Head Office in Mauritius for allowing Emotions to be their partner in various destination promotions and action plans.
GB - Do you think your company can work effectively with the airline to attract the numbers to fill the hotels and other hospitality facilities?
DC - We strongly believe in working hand in hand with SAA and use our expertise and knowledge of the destination to attract African tourists. Knowledge of the destination is a key factor and this is where we have an important role to play.
GB - How is your company also positioning itself to work in close collaboration with travel and tour companies in Ghana to drive traffic to your country?
DC - To start with, by welcoming the professionals of the sector from Ghana to come and discover Mauritius, meet our local stakeholders and at a later stage travel to Ghana to have one to one meetings with the travel agencies with a focus on training and refresher sessions about our resorts and island offerings.
GB - But considering the size of your country, do you think it can handle the traffic?
DC - So far Africa is still a very small market for Mauritius, so I have no doubt that we can handle the traffic. Also note that we have different types of accommodation and not only resorts, such as private villas and bungalows ideal for groups of friends and families, beach apartments and studios, charming little hotels for honeymooners etc.
GB - How affordable can your services be to make it the first choice for its customers?
DC - We believe that there is a price to pay for a certain level of service and we would not undervalue our services. However, we always ensure that our rates remain affordable for the market. We will never be the cheapest but we are the best value for money and do not compromise on service.
GB - In your view, what can the Mauritius government do to make the destination more affordable to attract more tourists?
DC - The biggest component of a trip is the airfare, so it would be recommended to have a mutual consensus between the government and the airlines for cheaper rates as a promotional campaign, as well as a decrease in airport taxes.
GB - Any other comments?
DC - We believe a lot in Africa and wish to become the Mauritian DMC Ambassador in Africa!