EVENTS
MAPPRE ASSISTANCE was out in force at the recent ABTA travel industry convention in the beautiful capital of Mallorca, Palma, at the start of October. A trio of senior executives - Leire Jimenez, Richard Saunders and Steve Duxbury - attended the conference, one of the key events on the UK and global travel industry calendar.
Founded in 1950, The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is one of the world’s largest travel industry bodies. It now boasts 1,313 members and represents over 5,000 retail outlets and offices. The convention itself in Palma was attended by over 1,000 delegates, with representation from all key UK travel companies, from cruise and tour operators to airlines and niche travel agencies.
MAPPRE ASSISTANCE took the opportunity to raise its profile to this core target audience by sponsoring the popular e-tid Breakfast Briefing. This was a key meeting at the conference, with speeches from senior executives at firms such as Tesco and Teletext.
MAPFRE ASSISTANCE believes there are huge opportunities in the travel market. MAPFRE ASSISTANCE is an A rated insurer, present in over 40 countries and in the last three years has become one of the five largest travel insurers in the UK.
Steve Duxbury, who heads up MAPFRE ASSISTANCE’s Travel & Leisure sales force, said: “The ABTA convention is a core event for us, and, in terms of new business development and networking, it is first rate. More than that, it allows you to see new strategies and ways of thinking, understand new technologies and hear from the horse’s mouth about trends and developments in the travel industry.”
Steve added: “Overall there was a positive sentiment and feeling at the conference. Our value proposition and our ability to offer tailored products to our clients is a critical differentiator for MAPPRE ASSISTANCE. We see a lot of our rivals offering ‘off the shelf’ services to their travel clients, which we can do too, but MAPPRE ASSISTANCE is focused on delivery bespoke, individual products and this will, we believe, take us onto further success.”
Leire Jimenez, Head of B2B – Travel, added: “We have in that time created strong partnerships with companies such as Holiday Extras, Travel Counsellors and RCCL amongst others.
“The UK travel sector is of strategic importance to us and that is why we have developed products that specifically meet the needs of our partners, offer them regulatory support through our AR network, and help to maximize their insurance and product sales.”