24 hours with Geoffrey Bezzina
Unwrapping the package holiday
Going on holiday can be very stressful. It is up to those in the industry to make it less so
Thomson Holidays, a division of TUI UK Ltd, is part of the World of TUI, the largest German-owned tourist and services group in the world, employing 80,000 people in 500 companies. Thomson Holidays brings more British tourists to Cyprus than any other company. During the season, 30 flights a week will land on the island, bringing around 200,000 holidaymakers. Geoffrey Bezzina is their Area Yield Manager for the Eastern Mediterranean based here in Cyprus.
Geoff has been with Thomson since 1979 and he’s a globally mobile, 24 hours a day, committed to the job man. He’s been in Cyprus for eight years, originally as Area Manager, so he knows the package business inside out and he unwrapped some of its problems and strengths for me. Son of Maltese parents, born in Australia, he says that he has never lost his love of being on the move, “once you get into travel, it’s a bug”.
Like a lot of people in the holiday industry, he started on the ground, meeting and greeting people as an “airport rep”. Much has changed from those early days. British holidaymakers are now, he says, some of the best travelled and most discerning in the world. Many will be taking up to five foreign holidays a year, “they know what they want from a holiday, they are more demanding now, less tolerant, they know their rights and they are well-informed”.
Computers have made a huge difference, he says, 50 per cent of Thomson holidays will be booked through the web. It means that the old concept of package tourism is having to radically change, people want flexibility, they often want tailor-made holidays and they are very capable of researching resorts and organising their own itineraries.
With an average spending power of £200 per tourist, the British tourist is a vital asset to the Cypriot economy, “it’s a myth that people come just for the sun and sea”. Bezzina said 35 per cent will take excursions and about 20 per cent will hire cars to explore the island.
Which is why Geoff is a Director of the charity CSTI (Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative), which hopes to encourage tourists to visit and contribute to the economies of rural villages in Cyprus through the development of six “village routes” for independent exploration.
His own days are busy helping fill the beds on the island and the surrounding region. Sales in Cyprus have been falling by about six per cent a year. Foreign policy, Iraq and then Lebanon, impacts decisions people make in UK about where they want to go. For better or worse, Cyprus is perceived to be close to “hot spots” of conflict.
Recently, Geoff, was in a real hot spot as forest fires raged through Halkidiki. It is part of the company philosophy that managers must expect to shed their suits and be hands on, he went to help out his colleagues in Greece, relieving those who had had no sleep, he himself worked a 36 hour shift helping to evacuate and locate holidaymakers.
Does he miss being at the grass roots? He laughs, “I had my wild times when I was young. Being a “ rep” still means that you can work hard and play hard, now I feel like a father figure to them.”
Thomson have dropped their organised “pub crawls” around Ayia Napa, but Geoff says you can’t expect British holidaymakers not to drink, it’s part of the culture, but they can help encourage responsible tourism. He argues though this is a two way process, if local businesses offer sex and booze cheaply then it is not Thomson’s brief to do the local authorities’ monitoring job for them.
What sells Cyprus to British holidaymakers apart form the sun, sea and sand, is its contrasts, its safety, its good accommodation and the accessibility through the English language. But like all good love affairs, the people of the island must not get blas?: you need to still keep working at making the welcome warm. People work hard for their two weeks in the sun, “Going on holiday is very stressful,” he laughs, it’s his job and those who work in the tourist sector here to realise that.
