The 3rd Annual Meeting in Balrcelona

Dear ISTAA Members,

The ISTAA 3rd Annual General Meeting took place in Barcelona at Petit Palace Museum Hotel on the 28th of November 2011. One day before, the Board of Directors had their autumn meeting. It was a good idea to organize both meetings just before the EIBTM Travel Fair. Most of the members combined both events, saving money and time.

 

On 27th of November the Board of Directors worked late into the night discussing goals, reviewing prospective members and new, wider membership criteria, marketing ideas and budgets for 2011 and 2012.  We created new solutions to keep up with the fast ISTAA growth. As a result of the two-year ISTAA board experience we decided that in order to better fulfill the ISTAA mission and to make the criteria more clear, sharp and transparent, it is necessary to establish 3 kinds of membership. Our organization specified its core mission and business goals. Despite the strict treatment of passive and unpaid-fee members and cancelling 10 members from our list in April 2011, we have tremendous growth. We have 35 members in 29 countries, 5 more applicants are pending and most probably will join us soon. We hope for many more newcomers as a result of establishing much broader admission criteria.

The main goal for ISTAA is to fill the world with ISTAA members and build a global organization. Due to the large number of potential members who did not meet the basic criteria listed in ISTAA Rules & Regulations in 2010, the Board of Directors has decided to introduce 3 categories of membership:

 

ISTAA membership application must include year of foundation and more questions regarding recommendations, experience and financial status (insurance).

ISTAA AGM started with 7 very interesting presentations. Pegazus Spain – our host-member – did a very good job coordinating all the invited speakers. We listened with outmost attention:

The presentations were followed by discussion. As is natural, a frequently addressed topic was to determine to what extent the global sports associations and organizers of international championships are now ready to create support for tourist traffic, or in practice to travel agents in obtaining tickets for major sports events and influence the structure of the  audience.

The offers were superbly prepared and delivered in a very professional manner in the form of very interesting and informative presentations, including videos. It needs to be stressed that ISTAA is beginning to gain recognition in the world of Sports Events and Associations.

The ISTAA Board of Directors decided to continue the newsletter, the concept of which had been suspended since April (due to lack of news). A new rule has been introduced, stating that every month two members are the authors of the news, presenting their profile, successes, problems, some unique cases. The ISTAA office will implement those news, add some more information and distribute the newsletter to members and sports organizations.

The agenda for the presentations of the individual members will be set up in December 2011 by Barbara distributed by email.

The two already existing web tools: the Risk Forum (the “black list” of agencies and partners, helping members to avoid problems) and the sports tickets platform, will be continued in 2012 as well. We believe that both of them will be developed as the volume and status of ISTAA members increases.

One of the most important problems identified during the meeting was the VAT recovery from London 2012 Olympic Games tickets. The UK government consistently refuses to refund the VAT, motivating its decision with the fact that this event is taking place in the UK and tickets are only paper confirmation and means of conveying information, not a service. It has also been claimed that travel packages including olympic tickets are not subject to the VAT refund procedure, but the tickets themselves are. Concluding, we are sure that all ATRs should file VAT recovery claims before the Olympic Games and some of us think that this should even be done urgently – before the end of 2011. All information sent to the ISTAA office regarding this topic is very welcome, all news will be distributed to members to help them solve this problem.

Regarding the promotion of ISTAA, we checked the structure of visits on www.istaa.org and we found out that in the countries where sport is an important issue and where our members are active promoting our organization we have noted a significant number of visits, for instance in Poland, USA, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Israel etc. Concluding: we ask you to promote ISTAA, its mission and logo in the local media, during meetings and conferences. By building the strength and image of ISTAA we are building the position of our own agencies and our own image. The ISTAA Board of Directors is to your disposal to support you in case of any local sports events, meetings with sport divisions of the local government, any sports federations or Olympic Committees. All these efforts boost our visibility and our position on the international sports market, which could be crucial in the future for keeping our businesses growing.

ISTAA  should  mean  reliability and responsibility. We have to be sure that all our members offer top-quality services and that the entire financial side of our relations is fluent and problem-free. The position of ISTAA depends upon two key elements: trust among members and professional expertise on domestic and international level.

We were informed by Pavle from Croatia about a new sports travel network named Network4sportstravel. This is a club of friends – DMSs from 9 countries. They cooperate and share the costs of participating in travel shows. This idea of joint events, like having an ISTAA stand at the EIBTM or other important fairs or conferences under ISTAA umbrella, should be taken into consideration. We should also consider officially inviting Network4sportstravel to mutual cooperation.

After lunch Barbara briefly presented ISTAA’s achievements during the last 2 years and outlined the financial status of ISTAA. The discussion was very productive and multifaceted.

All members agreed to the directions of the ISTAA development and its goals. An important subject which was discussed was the establishment of closer relations with UEFA and FIFA first and foremost, but also with other international sports associations and federations like FIBA, FINA, HIS etc. An important point of view was brought forth by FC Barcelona: we should work together, join forces to show that our clients constitute an important share of those who fill the seats of a stadium or arena. At the initial stage of development of our organization it is the first, small steps that count. We are proud that we were able to convince UEFA to establish the status of Licenced Touroperator for UEFA Euro 2012. This may be the beginning of a new era. This is the time to break the glass wall!

        Marco from Italy recommended creating working committees to fulfill main goals such as recruitment and verification of new members, Public relations & marketing, Contacts with outside organizations. He also suggested the need for verifying the number of ISTAA members from one country. There were also voices in favour of revising the fee structure in the future, especially the entrance fee for new members and adjusting the fee level proportionally to the size of the market and the agent’s sales volume and market share.

        It was a very fruitful meeting. See you next year in Barcelona at the 4th ISTAA AGM – on 26th of November 2012, one day before EIBTM. Cristine & G from Pegazus Spain, please reserve a much bigger meeting room…

 

Sincerely Yours

Zbigniew Wróbel

President of ISTAA

 

 

Presentation

To see presentation click  here.