Euromic reports strong recovery
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Euromic, the oldest DMC alliance in the industry, is on a “major upward trajectory”, with president Rajeev Kohli reporting an expansion in sales units and membership around the world.
Kohli, who took office in January 2020, said: “In the past 12 months, we opened sales units in Germany and South Africa, and one more is coming in early-2023.
“When most other consortiums were cutting back (during the pandemic), euromic was planning to invest for the future.”
The non-profit marketing organisation, with one member per country by invitation, turns 50 next year and has new members in the US, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
The grouping is also expected to add a Singapore member, Kohli told TTGmice, adding there was interest from three companies, which were being vetted.
Kohli, who is joint managing director of India’s Creative Travel, said 12 euromic members attended the recent IMEX America.
“The outlook from most of our members is very positive. For our mainstream European members, business is back over 2019 levels for quite a few, and for others it is still very positive, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict is seriously impacting members in that region,” he said.
Asia is picking up, he observed.
“I think US planners want to show their clients a broader side of the world. Asia has a lot to offer. Infrastructure is generally good. Culture is a positive,” he said.
“Our mission needs to be to negate the perceptions of long flights. That is perhaps our biggest hindrance from increased business into Asia,” he added.
With the US travel industry still in the recovery phase, destinations that are tried and tested are preferred. “Asia will probably come into the picture from 2023 onwards,” he observed.
Meanwhile, manpower recruitment continues to be the “biggest challenge the industry is facing the world over”. He said requests for proposals had gone up rapidly and members were struggling to reply on time.
While euromic members were sharing notes, trying to help each other, hiring was a local matter.
“At this stage, members are just too busy and trying to keep their heads over water with what infrastructure they have,” he pointed out, when asked what support members were looking for.