TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms)

-

There are two very different reasons why I admire TIPTO.  Reason one: it's a great organisation bringing together the very best specialist tour operators and suppliers, and presenting their products to the independent agent community.  Reason two: it's right up there with the best acronyms in the travel industry.  TIPTO!  It's hard to imagine that name being conceived in a meeting room.  If you ask me, there was almost certainly alcohol involved and though I can't be sure, I suspect there were more women than men in the office (or pub) on that particular day.  The name TIPTO is just so light and dainty.  If it had been left to blokes it would have been called BIGTO or TONAIL or something.



Fair play to TIPTO though; this is crowded market for acronyms so standing out is no easy feat. The travel business is in love with abbreviations; from the short ones like BA, to the big ones like CIMTIG; unpronounceable ones like PSARA, (which incidentally, according to one travel industry legend, became the inspiration for the Citroen Xsara when a French car designer went to the wrong conference in Southampton after one too many Stellas with a travel agent the night before), and obscure ones like EFTO.



Our biggest tour operators are TUI and TC; in cruise you can book CCS or NCL (both members of ACE).  Want an airline?  How about KLM, or BMI, or SAS? Not sure what license you need? Simply choose from IATA, ATOL, ABTA or TTA.



The three letter acronym (TLA) and four letter acro-nym (FLAN) have become the secret language of the trade.  Don't believe me?  Try walking into your local pub and telling someone at the bar that you've just flown SAA back from  ITT where you talked to the CAA about the EU switch from APD to PPD.  If that doesn't get you thrown out tell him that next week you're going to WTM to meet with RUI and TfT, and running 10K for the FHA, then you could reminisce about the good old days before BOAC merged with BEA, and when the FTO was the TOSG.  In the texting vernacular of my kids... OMG WTF!



We're all so used to talking like this that I once managed to persuade a  TTG journalist (or was it TW?) that in response to the formation of TIPTO the big boys were fighting back with a new alliance of their own; the Vertically Integrated Multiples Tour Operators... or VIMTO as it would be called.  It was only when we were asked for a PDF (!) of the logo to go with the story that we lost our bottle and owned up.



Is it any surprise given all of this that I'm often asked what KUONI stands for?  Easy... luxury holidays and world class service.



… and that was 2BC/2 (too bl**dy clever by half!)... LMAO



TTFN - Degsy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Agents Aren’t Going Anywhere – They’re Becoming More Essential

-
Image
Every year, a new prediction circulates that travel agents are on the brink of extinction. Most recently, the usual doomsday narrative has been fuelled by the rapid rise of AI travel search. Ask a chatbot where to go for a “relaxing beach break with culture” and it will oblige with enthusiasm, lists, videos, average temperatures and possibly a recipe for paella if you get your prompts tangled. There’s no denying AI has raised the bar for inspiration . Customers can now explore possibilities instantly and visually, without leaving the sofa. That’s not a threat to agents, it’s just the new landscape. Where things get interesting is what happens next.  Because choice doesn’t create clarity, it creates overwhelm . P eople don’t want more holiday options. They want the right one. This is where the agent’s role shifts, but absolutely does not diminish. Agents no longer need to spend hours sifting through brochures or loading endless package searches. AI can handle the broad filterin...
Read more

Why on earth...?

-
Andrew Marr and James Naughty have both recently been guilty of the same unfortunate mistake when they inadvertently mis-introduced the ‘Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt’.   Strangely the same mispronunciation seemed to be affecting some parts of the travel industry last week, only this time it was harder to pin all the blame on Dr Spooner. Mr Hunt you see, has hit upon a plan so cunning that in the words of Blackadder ‘You could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.’   (Cunning Hunt… be careful!)   Starting next month, the Department of Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport will be spending £4 million pounds of taxpayers money on its biggest ever TV advertising blitz with one purpose in mind - to stop your customers going overseas on holiday this summer.   The strapline... ‘There’s so much happening in Britain in 2012, why on earth would you want to go abroad?’ Thanks Mr Hunt.   I imagine £4 million is just the interest you’ve earned this month on all tha...
Read more

Virtual Eggheads - Does virtual reality have a place in travel retailing?

-
Image
Some products lend themselves to very highly targeted marketing opportunities. I’m thinking here of the sort of things that end up being advertised on small posters above men’s urinals in motorway service station toilets. Currently filling this particular marketing spot is a poster featuring three naked men, each holding a hat over his Cox and Kings. Well, two of them are holding the hat; the middle man’s hat appears to be levitating of its own accord, supported we can only imagine by his very own medically assisted, erm… hat stand. This thought was running around my head as I was having my hair cut last week. The usual - a number three at the back and sides, and shorten the top to match. Simple haircuts need simple tools and so my barber comes simply equipped with a comb, a good pair of scissors, an electric trimmer and a hairdryer. The hairdryer by the way is not for drying, it’s for blowing any stray (mostly grey) hairs off my shoulders when he’s finished. Notably miss...
Read more