| Winners of the Diners Club ASATA Awards, the annual awards
held to recognise superior service provided by suppliers to the travel industry,
voted for by South African travel agents, were announced in March 2007 at
the annual ASATA (Association of Southern African Travel Agents) Congress
held in Muldersdrift.
Winners in the various categories are as follows:
• Online international airline – SAA
• International offline airline – bmi
• African airline – SAA
• Domestic airline – Nationwide
• Tour operator – Thompsons Tours
• Hotel group – Southern Sun
• SA independent accommodation provider – Sabi Sabi
• African tour operator – Thompsons Tours
• Tourist office – VisitBritain
• Car rental company – Avis
• Foreign exchange provider – American Express
• Consulate – German Consulate
“This is the fifth consecutive year that Avis has won this award
and that makes us very proud,” says Fabio Lenci from Avis. “These
awards help to keep us on our toes. Being the biggest car rental company
in South Africa, we could otherwise become complacent and arrogant. But
winning this award every year is a goal that we strive for, and helps
to ensure that our service levels to the industry remain our principal
priority”.
Given the improved success and transparency of the 2005 awards, Grant
Thornton was re-appointed last year to manage the ASATA Travel Awards
judging process, by conducting discreet random telephonic surveys covering
twelve award categories on Diners Club’s behalf. By the end of January
this year, a total of 2 521 ASATA Retail Members ranging in seniority
from junior consultants through to business owners and managers had cast
their vote in the 2006 Diners Club ASATA Awards.
The voting demographics in this year’s survey reflected that 51%
of the votes came from Gauteng, 15% from Kwa-Zulu Natal, 19% from the
Western Cape and a total of 15% were from other regions. This shows that
the geographic representation of the survey was reflective of the geographical
split of the population across South Africa.
Speaking at the awards ceremony on Friday night, Managing Director of
Diners Club South Africa, Linda Manzini, congratulated all of the winners
and hinted that more changes were in store for the awards this year.
“We will yet again be looking at these awards and taking them to
a new level. We will be focusing on weighted averages, on on-going analyses
and on themed voting within categories. What this will mean is that the
best companies will come out tops, irrespective of whether they are a
small supplier or big player.”
“Diners Club is so pleased to have been involved with ASATA for
17 of the 50 years that they have been in existence. And we look forward
to many more successful years ahead,” Manzini said.
* Visit the ASATA website - click here
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