Supplier Newsletter. September In this edition. Welcome to the September 2014 edition of the AOT Supplier Newsletter.

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1 September 2014 Welcome to the September 2014 edition of the AOT. In this edition From the COO - update from Cinzia Burnes AOT Finance Department - CFO Des Fielding Global Sales & Marketing - GM Gary Paterson AOT Contracting Update - GM Mark Windsor Government Services Update- GM Rohan Moss Wholesale Division Update - GM Lisa Harrison AOT NZ Update - GM Jason Strong ATS Pacific Update - GM Stuart Neels Awards & Updates AOT Calendar 2014 The AOT Group offers our supplier partners distribution and sales via a wide range of domestic and global channels to our distribution network worldwide. AOT sells your products via international and domestic trade partners, via our last minute business and via all Agencies of the Australian Government. Established in 1987, the AOT Group has 570 full-time staff in 16 locations worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, UK, Europe and throughout Asia. 1

2 From the Chief Executive Officer From Andrew Burnes Travel distribution never stands still and the channels to market are always evolving. At AOT we focus on three main channels, namely inbound, wholesale and accommodation program management. Our last minute brand, needitnow.com.au, is still an important part of our business but these days the real significance of needitnow is to provide last minute content to all of our other channels so we have last minute inventory and can access lower dynamic rates. This allows hotel suppliers to yield manage, up or down, daily rates based on demand but to still take advantage of AOT s distribution through our domestic and global network of retail & wholesale agency partners and our accommodation program management customer, the Australian Government. However despite a lot of effort to get rid of them, year round static rates and inventory are still a very important part of the distribution system and will remain so into the future. From time to time a chain or an individual property takes the very courageous decision to walk away from static rates and run exclusively with dynamic rates and inventory. This usually lasts about four to six months. When it s realised that business has dropped away so dramatically, the year round rates return together with dedicated inventory but by then the horse has bolted and it takes at least a year if not longer to get back in to that part of the distribution network that requires static rates in which to operate. But what is increasingly disturbing is the enormous and unjustifiable rate differentials between what can be found on both supplier sites and often on the most obscure OTA web sites around the world and the year round rates that both AOT and our clients feature in their programs and on their own web sites. It seems that some year round rates are increasingly set with little reference to reality and are out of date and uncompetitive the second they are set. We feature in our own wholesale brochures and web sites and our overseas wholesale clients feature in their brochures and web sites over 1000 properties in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. While some may see this form of distribution as diminishing, our inbound business has never been stronger and our wholesale businesses are holding their own. But it is both bewildering and frustrating when we find that as soon as wholesale programs are released, the rates in them are undercut so dramatically, in some instances by up to 50% for much of the validity of the program. Why does this happen? Is it that static rates are not being treated seriously? Well we treat them very seriously because much of our business relies on them and we expect them to be given due consideration so that we can meet one of the fundamentals of the service proposition we provide our leisure customers (both travel retailers and wholesalers) with and that is to be price competitive. Often dynamic rates are packaged up with some conditions which don t apply to static rates, including the prepay requirement and/or the 100% cancellation requirement. But our cancellation rates for FIT leisure accommodation bookings are under 3%, which means that our customers are committed to their booking and directly compare our static rates, with some ability to cancel without penalty (often up to 48 hours before arrival), with rates offered with 100% cancellation conditions or pre pay conditions on the same basis. This is no justification for having dynamic rates that are 20%, 30% or even 50% less than the rates offered by you directly or indirectly with pre pay and/or 100% cancellation conditions and we expect contracted year round rates to remain competitive year round. So when setting your year round rates for 2015/16 and beyond, we are asking you to give these very serious consideration and to try and ensure that these rates will allow AOT and our many clients worldwide to remain competitive throughout the applicable rate year and offer a price to our customers that is fair and reasonable. Kind regards Andrew Burnes CEO 2

3 From the Chief Operating Officer Welcome to the September edition of the AOT. It seems that ATE in Cairns was only yesterday and yet it s only 3 months to X-mas. AOT is obviously delighted to have ATE in Melbourne in June 2015, particularly considering that our new Head Office is literally 3 minutes walk from the Melbourne Convention Centre! The 2014/15 financial year is well under way and I am pleased to advise that our travelled TTV is up 36% on the same time last year and new bookings are up 34%, with strong growth in inbound from all markets for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific and domestic business going well except in Queensland, which is down 15%. We are just wrapping up Contracting for the 15/16 rate year (isn t that scary??!!!) and finalising the brochures for Sunlover Holidays, Territory Discoveries and Air New Zealand Holidays as well as working with our overseas clients to assist with their 15/16 programs. Since our last we ve attended ATE, conducted Contracting meetings, held our inaugural PSP workshop in Sydney, worked on our domestic brochure range for Sunlover Holidays, Territory Discoveries and Air New Zealand Holidays, held the STARS 2014 event in the Whitsundays and undertaken extensive campaign activity in Australia and New Zealand. We also found a new home in Auckland, where both the ATS office and the AOT office will relocate to the end of October. Watch out Newmarket! The Management Team held the annual conference at the end of July and everyone was pleased with the 2013/14 results and plans for the year ahead. A big thank you to Anna Guillan and her wonderful team at Hayman. You will also read in this edition of the new wave of AOT famils which are happening in the next few months and thank you to the support of the STO s and the ongoing generosity of our Partners. We wish to thank all of you for your ongoing support of the AOT Group. Best regards, Cinzia Burnes COO The AOT Management Team at the annual Conference held at One & Only Hayman Island 3

4 Sunlover STARS Shining Brightly The annual 2014 Sunlover Holidays STARS event took place from July 2014 in Queensland, with 3 nights on Hamilton Island, followed by 1 night on the brand new One&Only Hayman Island. With 75 top performing domestic agents from across Australia and New Zealand, as well as our very own AOT All Stars, the event was a fabulous success with many agents commenting that it was our best yet. This event would not have been possible without the generous support of AOT s accommodation and touring partners and Tourism and Events Queensland The AOT Group would like to thank all of the Sponsors and Partners who made the 2014 STARS event possible and in particular Tourism Queensland, Hamilton Island and Hayman Island. For a full report on this event click here 4

5 From Des Fielding, CFO, AOT Finance AOT Finance Department Following from our last newsletter, I would like to introduce Victor Mai as our newest member of the Accounts Payable Team at AOT in Melbourne. Victor Mai joined the team in August this year in the position of Accounts Payable Officer, and since joining has managed to rise to the challenge. Victor has over three years experience in Accounts Payable and this is his first role in the Travel Industry, so please join me in giving Victor a warm welcome. With the AOT Finance Department restructure now complete, our Accounts Payable Team in Melbourne now consists of seven Accounts Payable Officers, directly reporting to the Accounts Payable Team Leader Padmini Thampoe and the entire team is led by the Accounts Payable Manager Robert Pletikos. We aim to achieve best practice Accounts Payable outcomes for our s and as we approach the peak season in Australia and New Zealand, we have a highly skilled team of Accounts Payable professionals in place to ensure we provide the best available service and get your invoices paid correctly and on-time. As previously noted, some of the best ways to help our Accounts Payable Team ensure your invoices are paid on time are: Provide a valid tax invoice on a timely basis. payment runs are generated to a timetable at the end of every month and in view of the transaction volumes, we require accurate information on the invoice or Statement to ensure they are processed in time. Our system automatically processes PDF copies of the invoice and therefore a PDF copy sent to the following address (as applicable) will ensure your invoice is processed without delay. accountspayable@aot.com.au (Invoices for all divisions except AOT Hotels) gspayments@aot.com.au (All AOT Hotels invoices) Invoices should not be sent to individuals as the invoice will then fall outside our system controls and may result in invoices not being processed. Each line item on the invoice must display a valid AOT Group booking reference number The amount charged must coincide with the applicable contract rate and the booking confirmation details. Variations will delay the payment process while the difference is investigated. AOT Group Head Office previously sent out an to all suppliers to update the address details for all correspondence. If this earlier correspondence has been missed, can you please update our details as follows: AOT Group Head Office 179 Normanby Road South Melbourne 3205 Victoria Australia queries should be directed to the relevant address as specified above or alternatively phone Monday to Friday from and your query will be directed to the relevant Accounts Payable team member handling your account. Kind regards, Des Fielding, Director, CFO 5

6 Global Sales and Marketing An update from Gary Paterson, General Manager Global Sales and Marketing Greetings from the UK. I will be back to Australia by then end of the month after a couple of weeks holidays and a few weeks of Sales calls in the UK. As Cinzia noted, it is great to see that the markets are still very strong right around the world and booking trends continue to be well up on last year. The trend seems to be common in all markets and and the decline of the dollar in the last few days can only mean more competitive prices in local currencies. Our ETA division has had a very good Lebaran travel period, while bookings continue to come in strong for the X- mas holiday season and Chinese New Year from right across Asia and the sub-continent. Our offices in Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mumbai report very strong demand for both group and FIT travel. Over the next few months we will be will be attending TTG Italia in early October and World Travel Market in London in early November. If you are attending WTM you can find us at our stand, AS460, which is right next to Tourism Australia s stand. I will be there together with our CEO, Andrew Burnes, our COO Cinzia Burnes, Stuart Neels from ATS and Brad Rutherford from ATS/TTF in Fiji. Leah Goddard, whom many of you know well, has accepted the role of AOT Group Training Manager and will move into that role at the end of the month. I am pleased to advise that Abbey Quinn, who joined AOT in 2012 as part of the Government Services team, will join me in the International Sales team in the role of Inbound Sales Coordinator. Well, back on the road now! Gary 6

7 AOT Contracting Department Update from Mark Windsor, General Manager AOT Contracting The contracting season is well and truly underway with many of you keeping our contracting team extremely busy as we assemble rates and inventory for the year in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. However, we want to be busier! This means, that we have yet to receive a number of contracts and brochure commitment forms for the upcoming domestic programmes of Sunlover Holidays, Air New Zealand Holidays & Territory Discoveries. We would greatly appreciate your co-operation in finalising all of this information so that we can design, print and distribute the programs in a timely fashion and get to market before the end of In addition to this many of our international partners are finalising their brochures for distribution and we need to ensure that we receive rates as quickly as possible. This means that we can get your product to market quickly & accurately. Your assistance, of course, is always appreciated. It has certainly been wonderful to meet many of you either personally, by phone or via exchange over the last few months. I am planning to our major destinations once the contracting period is over and meet many more of you face to face and become acquainted with your product. Many of you will have met with our Contracting Managers as they completed their in market visits over the past couple of months. All of them returned with positive reviews and reports on their meetings as well as new product, which is always exciting to see. Kellie White attended the Choice Hotels Conference in Auckland recently where she met many of the franchisees over the 2 days and was able to provide information about loading of contracts and rates via AOT s on-line contracting system. A big thank you to those partners that have provided us with campaign deals over the past couple of months. I know that these can be a extra work for all parties, but a great opportunity none the less to stimulate business, especially over the winter period and take advantage of our national wholesale campaigns. For those of you that supply rates to our lastminute portal NeeditNow, did you know that you can also elect to have these rates feed through to the AOTHotels WoAG (Whole of Australian Government) Accommodation programme, giving you a greater opportunity for sales from Government travellers? Standard Government cancellation conditions apply and all Government bookings are paid for within 1 working day of presenting a valid invoice. If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact Mark Ehlers, Contracting Manager, Government Services at mark.ehlers@aot.com.au. So in closing, can I ask that you keep us up to date with the address & contact details for your key personnel,, so that we can maintain an accurate contact list. Updates can be sent to: contracting@aot.com.au. We all look forward to the upcoming 2015/16 season. Best regards, Mark Windsor, Group General Manager Contracting 7

8 Government Services Update from Rohan Moss, General Manager Government Services Sales Update With the new financial year kicking, new bookings in July declined on last year however August bookings rebounded strongly with a 6% increase over last year and should continue strongly now right through until early December. Government Travellers Book Late are you getting your share? We now have a full year of data with all Agencies transacting with AOTHotels and what is clear and not changing, is that Government traveller s book late. Here are some relevant numbers; 4% book on day or travel 11% book 1-2 days prior to travel 35% book 3-7 days prior to travel So 50% of all bookings are made 7 days or less prior to travel. With the late booking profile, Government bookings provide a great opportunity to increase your occupancy within 7 days of arrival and when you have a clear picture on your occupancy levels. How can you maximise sales and capture these last minute bookings? 1. Make sure you load rates into Need it Now AND allow us to use the rates for Government travellers a Automatically uses your current dynamic Need it Now rates if you agree to that; b The standard Government cancellation policy applies to bookings using rates in Needitnow. But please note that all Government travel is pre-approved and that less than 1% of all bookings cancel. c Invoices can be sent on check-out with payment made 1 working day from receipt of invoice Click here to enable Need it Now rates for Government travellers and increase your sales today Government Short Stay Cancellation Policy (1-6 Nights) Capital City & Suburban Properties over 40 rooms, cancellations may be made without penalty up to 2pm on the day of arrival Capital City & Suburban Properties of 40 rooms or less, cancellations may be made without penalty up to 2pm the day prior to arrival Non-Capital City Properties over 40 rooms, cancellations may be made without penalty up to 2pm on the day prior to arrival Non-Capital City Properties between 40 and 20 rooms, cancellations may be made without penalty up to 2pm two days prior to arrival Non-Capital City Properties under 20 rooms, cancellations may be made without penalty up to 2pm three days prior to arrival 2. Connect to AOTHotels via your Channel Manager to top up inventory, especially within 7 days of arrival to connect channelmanager@aot.com.au 3. Top up inventory via AOT Manager Click here for Manager Hotel Images and Information With a range of hotel options presented to Government travellers on the AOTHotels portal, TMC OBT s and to our call centre staff, it is important to provide the best possible images and up to date information on your hotel. We encourage suppliers to update their images and information via the AOT Manager. Click here to update. 8

9 Wholesale Division Update from Lisa Harrison, General Manager Wholesale It has been a busy start to the new financial year with back to back Sunlover Holidays marketing campaigns in Australia including our Queensland Winter Warmers campaign and now our Australia On Sale campaign. We ve also had an Air New Zealand Holidays Discover Our World Cook Island campaign and now have an Australia On Sale campaign in the New Zealand market in addition to all our weekly marketing activity with the Air New Zealand Holiday Stores, Brokers and Contact Centres. This week we released a Territory Discoveries NT On Sale campaign to trade with a variety of Northern Territory packages on sale thoughout September. We consistently have campaign activity during peak selling periods, so if you re interested in discussing campaign opportunities, please our Wholesale Marketing team at wholesale.product@aot.com.au There are also opportunities to participate in our Workshops this year with our Wholesale reservations teams or you may wish to arrange a presentation with one or more our reservations teams in either Brisbane, Melbourne or the Auckland office. This financial year we have a strong focus on improving the product & destination knowledge of our Wholesale reservation team, so if you are interested in training or incentive opportunities, please Brooke.worrall@aot.com.au We recently released our Territory Discoveries Rail and Cruise brochure in late July, the last brochure from our 2014/15 range and we re in the final stages of working on our brochure range. If you have not already confirmed your participation, make sure you hurry! Also a reminder, that there is the opportunity to submit new images for your listing by contacting the Creative Team direct on aotcreative@aot.com.au. From July, 2014 we hosted our top 75 Travel Agents and Top 20 AOT All Stars from Australia and New Zealand at the much anticipated STARS 2014 event in the beautiful Whitsundays. We were hosted for 3 nights at Hamilton Island and then 1 night at One&Only Hayman Island. We had incredible support from our s Partners and on behalf of all at The AOT Group, I d like to thank our major sponsors Tourism & Events Queensland, Hamilton Island and One&Only Hayman Island as well as Virgin Australia, Cruise Whitsundays, Avis, ACCOR, AAT Kings, GSR, Crown Hotels, Delaware North, Voyages, TFE Hotels, Daydream Island and Ocean Hotels. We re now looking ahead and planning is underway for the STARS 2015 event. All our Retail Travel partners in Australia and now New Zealand can earn Stars Rewards Points by selling all three of our Wholesale brands Sunlover Holidays, Air New Zealand Holidays and Territory Discoveries. The STARS program offers agents some great features, including: Over 4000 reward options to choose from Monthly Bonus Points Partners Points + Pay option allows agents to contribute if they don t have quite enough points for your chosen option It s a great program so if you haven t registered do so today! Continued over... 9

10 Wholesale Division There is the opportunity for s and Destination Partners to be involved with monthly bonus points promotions. To take advantage of this opportunity, contact our Wholesale Product & Marketing Manager, Chris Phillips at: christopher.phillips@aot.com.au Air New Zealand Holidays We continue to focus on our quality of service and product delivery to our specialist destinations in the Pacific Region. With consistent marketing activity via edm communications, Kia Ora Inflight Magazine, weekly exclusive ZB radio deals and other marketing initiatives, there s always an opportunity to participate in a marketing campaign. If you re interested in discussing marketing campaign opportunities with our Air New Zealand Holidays Product & Marketing team, please contact either of our two new Product & Marketing Coordinator s: Nadege Landa - South Pacific and New Zealand, nadege.landa@airnzholidays.com.nz Alicia McGregor - USA/Canada/Hawaii and Australia, alicia.mcgregor@airnzholidays.co.nz Just a reminder of our key destinations where Air New Zealand Holidays are the preferred wholesaler to all the Air New Zealand channels and where we are focussing our efforts in terms of content, price, collateral material and consultant knowledge. New Zealand (including New Zealand Ski & Board) We are finalising the contracting and brochure participation for 2015/16 and wish to remind you that if you haven t already confirmed your brochure participation, please do so as soon as possible by contacting - ParticipationFormNZ@airnzholidays.co.nz If you have any queries regarding 2015/16 contracting or brochure participation, please contact the relevant Destination & Contracting Manager: New Zealand Lisa Harris New Zealand (North Island) - lisa.harris@aot.co.nz Nicola Squires New Zealand (South Island) nicola.squire@aot.co.nz South Pacific: Seru Konousi Fiji - seruk@atspacific.com.fj Carmel Beattie Cook Islands - Carmel.Beattie@aot.com.au Claudia Reis South Pacific (excluding Fiji and Cook Islands) claudia.reis@airnzholidays.co.nz North America/Canada/Hawaii; Claudia Reis North America/Canada/Hawaii claudia.reis@airnzholidays.co.nz Cruise: Joanne Crozier joanna.crozier@airnzholidays.co.nz Australia The Pacific Islands North America including Hawaii & Canada Best regards, Lisa Harrison Cruise 10

11 ANZH New Zealand Update from Jason Strong, GM of AOT New Zealand The first quarter of the financial year 14/15 has continued in-line with the positive results experienced in the previous quarter and despite this period traditionally being known as the low season we are still experiencing strong YOY growth and solid business levels. Forward bookings into the high season also continue to indicate the strong YOY growth will continue on last year results over this period. Considering the previous tough years in the New Zealand market this is a particularly good result for our clients and in-turn suppliers alike and we like you hope that it will continue into and beyond the fast approaching high season. At the recent TEC Conference, the forecasts presented a great insight into the industry as a whole and in terms of growth predictions we can advise that the AOT NZ inbound businesses are not only in-line but in-fact tracking slightly above those industry projections. With the 2015/16 inbound contracting period well underway I do wish to remind those that have not yet submitted their contracts to so ASAP so we may provision them through to our overseas wholesalers who are eagerly awaiting them to undertake their brochure and tariff productions. Along with the rates contracts we remind you the best way to secure sales and increase them is via dedicated allotment which has now never been easier with our new online self-management tool. This can be found at: The login details are the same as your online contracting details. Over the low season this year AOT, ATS and Air NZ Holidays has undertaken an intensive training program for all our frontline selling staff to improve and update their product knowledge in our NZ supplier range. These have been conducted firstly in the form of dedicated in-house famils and secondly with in-house PSP workshops with our PSP suppliers. Both our team and suppliers alike have found these to be an outstanding way to specifically tailor and provide dedicated training to our staff. There is still some space left for the final PSP Workshop on 08 October 2014, so please contact the Contracting team regarding attendance. On behalf of the AOT Management team and the NZ staff I would like to thank each and every single supplier and tourism body that has participated and supported us in these programs. The Annual IEC Conference was held last week in Hamilton where our contracting and management teams were out in force and conducted many productive meetings with all our supplier Partners during the day and networked with them hard at night. As always keep up to date with all the goings-on at AOT NZ and to share news about your product with our team and our international clients, make sure you LIKE AOT New Zealand on Facebook at the link: Regards, Jason Strong, Group General Manager, New Zealand 11

12 ATS Pacific Update from Stuart Neels, Group General Manager - ATS Pacific Australia, NZ & Fiji. Winter s usually a good time for us to focus on Operations, Contracting and preparation for the peak summer months in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji With business increasing out of our key markets of UK, Europe, Scandinavia and North America we have been recruiting more Inbound specialist staff across all three offices and training and mentoring in preparation for the peak season is well underway. It s a great pleasure to welcome our newest recruits to ATS Pacific. In Australia, we now have a dedicated customer service team for our agents to promptly deal with queries from our agents about their clients past travel. Your support of this process in responding quickly to our queries is greatly appreciated. Our clients are busy promoting their services and your products throughout the world. Trailfinders is joining in a campaign with Tourism Western Australia for a mid October release of the Waitrose Kitchen magazine. Waitrose is the UK s leading customer magazine written for people who love good food, drink and travel with a readership of 2,043,000 (2013). The focus is on international food stories and thought-provoking columns targeting top end clients. Many other clients also have significant campaign activity in coming months. The PSP workshops in Australia and New Zealand in July and August were very successful. These one-on-one opportunities are invaluable and a great way to improve the knowledge base within our organisation. A big thank you to all the PSP partners who participated. In New Zealand, the China market has continued to supply a steady stream of visitors along with a boost in July from the Japanese school holidays. Forward bookings for the high season continue to be really encouraging so please top up the allotments wherever you can. In early August, ATS Pacific NZ was pleased to participate along with the Auckland International Airport at a series of workshops to assist the trade colleagues understand the concept of 4 Seasons/5 Senses a concept designed to stimulate travel in the shoulder and winter seasons. Participation from suppliers was outstanding, with lively discussion on how to enhance product offerings to align with popular aspects of Chinese culture and life, so we can all deliver something that engages our visitors. We have been getting as many of the ATS Pacific, AOT NZ and Air NZ Holidays teams as possible out on combined famils. A huge thank you for the support and hospitality shown by our supplier partners. Meanwhile Brad Rutherford in Fiji tells me that ATS Pacific Fiji has been re-appointed by Royal Caribbean International for all Fiji shore excursions in the coming year. Having recently been reappointed by Carnival Corp, this ensures ATS Pacific in Fiji remains strongly positioned in this ever growing market and continues to guarantee an important customer stream for many of our Fijian suppliers. ATS Pacific Fiji has also just finished wrapping up the contracting of the 2015/16 Air NZ Holidays brochure, where we received great support for this important wholesale brand and continue to receive positive numbers from the AU and NZ markets into Fiji. ATS Pacific Australia, New Zealand and Fiji thank you for your on-going support and myself, Kathy and Brad will be at WTM in London from the 3-6 November. Kind regards, Stuart Neels 12

13 OZcar Awards Clients Awards & Updates The team from Hotelplan Italy and Naar Tours both took out the award for Best Australia Program at the OZcars 2014 awards held in July in Italy. Pictured right are the Hotelplan Italy team with their award, as well as floral congratulations from AOT at right: L-R: Elena Pedrotti (Booking Supervisor); Paola Broggini (Product Manager); Daniela Zappa (Booking department); Matteo Diani (Booking Department) The new Naar Tour brochure pictured left is produced by Product Manager Patty Cigaina. Kuoni Netherlands becomes Tenzing Travel Update below is from Petrel van Bronkhorst (Business Unit Manager, Asia & Downunder, Tenzing Travel) We are pleased to announce a new step in the development of our company. In the upcoming year we will change our brand name from Kuoni into Tenzing Travel. Our new brand name as well as our corporate identity will be implemented gradually and will be finalized in Our legal entity name (New Dutch Travel Company B.V.) will remain the same. Please click this link to view a video message of Hans de Wilde, the CEO of Kuoni / Tenzing Travel. Our new brand name does not mean that we change our strategy. Our travelers as well as our partners appreciate the direction we have chosen. Not only these positive reactions, but also the positive results make us confident that we need to keep on building on our successful strategy. The current product offer and the personal service of our travel experts remain the same. We find our challenge in exceeding the expectations of our clients in all possible ways. We keep on motivated to deploy our personal experience together with our partners to realize unique and tailor-made holidays. Our brand name changes, but the quality, service and people stay the same. We are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Nathan Kyalo Demeter on August 31st, Kirk and partner Liz are delighted, albeit a little sleep deprived! We are wondering how long until little Nathan can start loading bookings in the system???? 13

14 AOT Melbourne We have recently marked the 1st Anniversary of our re-location to the AOT Headquarters in Melbourne. There are now 170 personnel working in head office. Having settled into the office over the past 12 months, we have also been so very fortunate to receive some lovely gifts, including the two pictured here. At right we have a deluxe coffee machine, courtesy of Choice Hotels, delivered for all the team to use (and it certainly makes a great coffee!). And on the left is an amazing artwork provided by Crown Hotels. The artwork was painted by the artist, live at the AOT Mega Famil Gala Dinner held in April. It features the Melbourne skyline with Crown and the AOT office as landmark buildings! A huge thank you to Choice Hotels and Crown Hotels for these amazing gifts! AOT Famils We completed our 13/14 AOT Famils Program in June 2014 with the Top End Famil, taking place on the last weekend in June. Visiting the Top End were our team from across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from a variety of departments, including FIT, Groups, Contracting, Product and Wholesale. Special thanks goes to Tourism NT and our supplier partners for making this famil possible and giving our staff the chance to experience the products they sell everyday. We are about to kick off our 14/15 Famils starting with Melbourne & Regional Victoria taking place September We then have a busy program planned for the rest of 2014 including Tangalooma and the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Flinders Ranges and finally the Red Centre. There are more destinations planned for the first half of 2015, so stay tuned.. 14

15 AOT Calendar Sep 2014 AOT Melbourne & Regional Victoria Famil Sep 2014 AOT Hotels Canberra & Sydney Famil Sep 2014 AOT Hotels Canberra & Sydney Famil Oct 2014 AOT Gold Coast Famil 15 Oct 2014 PSP Workshop, Melbourne (TAS, VIC, SA) 16 Oct 2014 PSP Workshop, Sydney (TAS, VIC, SA) Oct 2014 AOT South Australia Famil 3-6 Nov 2014 World Travel Market (London) 12 Nov 2014 PSP Workshop, Melbourne (NT/WA) 13 Nov 2014 PSP Workshop, Sydney (NT/WA) Nov 2014 AOT Red Centre Famil 10 Dec 2014 PSP Workshop, Brisbane (NSW) 10 Dec 2014 Nadi Xmas Party 11 Dec 2014 PSP Workshop, Melbourne (NSW) 11 Dec 2014 Sydney & Auckland Xmas Parties 12 Dec 2014 Melbourne & Brisbane Xmas Parties Fiji Castaway Island The AOT Group 179 Normanby Road South Melbourne Victoria 3205 AUSTRALIA Web: suppliers@aot.com.au 15