New Atas chair hopes to make touring and adventure ‘mainstream’
Intrepid boss Zina Bencheikh wants to make the touring and adventure sector “mainstream” by working closely with travel agents.
Bencheikh, who will become chair of the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) next month, has laid out her vision for the next two years.
“Making touring mainstream would be the ultimate goal,” she said, adding: “We need the support of the travel agents and the trade and the support of the destinations, as well, to make it more and more visible and accessible.”
Bencheikh, EMEA managing director of Intrepid, takes over the Atas leadership from Brian Young of G Adventures.
During an Atas dinner on April 18, Bencheikh said she was looking forward to starting her new role.
“It’s extremely exciting – the timing is right,” she said, adding that the industry is in “full recovery mode”.
She said the touring and adventure sector is performing particularly well.
“Most of, if not all, of the Atas tour operators are experiencing growth on 2019 levels,” Bencheikh said.
“We knew before the pandemic that we were in that part of the travel industry that was doing better than the overall industry.
“This has been accelerated by the pandemic because people want more experiences, people want more discovery, people want more memories from their holidays.
“What touring is also offering is a more responsible way of travelling to destinations, taking customers under the skin of a destination, taking them across a country and making sure their impact is spread across that country.”
Bencheikh said Atas will work closely with travel agents so they build up more knowledge about the sector.
“We have a lot of activities planned to get travel agents more and more familiar with, and closer to, our products so they’re more empowered to sell them and they’re more clear about what type of customers they could target,” Bencheikh said.
Atas will use data to show how big the sector has become, Bencheikh said, as well as information on destinations, types of holiday and lengths of trips. Training events and awareness sessions will be offered.
Bencheikh said: “Education is going to be important. I want to open it to travel agents, to consortia, to groups, independent groups. Any travel agents who tell us what they need, we’re ready to deliver.”
Asked why she wanted to take on the Atas leadership role, Bencheikh said: “I come from a destination [Morocco] and have seen first-hand the positive impact of touring and adventure in destinations.
“I’m passionate about the power that travel has to act as a force for good – to spread economic value across destinations, from the more developed to the poorer countries.”
She added she enjoys a challenge and wants to boost the visibility of the touring and adventure sector.
“I want customers to start seeing touring as part of the travel landscape,” she said.
“There’s mainstream, there’s all-inclusive summer beach holidays, there’s cruising – and there’s touring. It [touring] needs to be part of those options that are more famous in this market.”
