The tools of the trade

AS THIS column goes to press, the Melbourne Travel Show is being mounted in Australia and will be followed a week later by the Sydney Travel Show. The shows have become the biggest drawcard of their kind in Australia, and it’s expected that about 90,000 people will attend them in the week they will be open in two capitals about 40,000 people for the Mel bourne show and 50,000 in Sydney.

These are the shows at which the South Pacific islands present their considerable tourist attactions, pitting themselves against the rest of the world.

The Pacific village is always popular with show visitors, and taking part in the combined presentation this year are Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, French Polynesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Melbourne village is dominated by an eight-metre high smoking volcano, with bure- style stands set around its base. New Caledonia will also have a stand at the show, but outside the village. In the village there is entertainment every hour by the traditional concert party of dancers and musicians.

This year island travel will get even a bigger boost from the travel shows, because the concert party will tour between the two cities. Its members will board buses after the end of the Melbourne show in the Exhibition Building and entertain the Albury, Canberra and Wollongong (Albury and Wollongong are important NSW regional centres), before arriving in Sydney three days later for the opening of the Sydney Show at Darling Harbour.

What, if any, are the advantages of trade shows like these?

Fiji estmated that last year’s Australian travel shows brought another 5000 visitors to those islands, and many will return and recommend it to others. But exactly how extensive the benefits are can be difficult to quantify for trade promotions and I’m referring now to promotions generally, not only travel shows - can have a variety of benefits. If you’re in business, these aromotions have to be looked at as useful sales tools, not as an nd m themselves. There may be no benefits at all to some ompanies who take part in them. For instance, those who xpect they can display their goods or services at a trade fair md simply sit back waiting for the orders to roll in could be vasting their time and money.

And it does cost money to attend a trade promotion.

Although many of those taking part in the Melbourne and ydney travel shows will have had the advantage of concessional air fares and accommodation, subsidies to enable riem to set up their stands and other benefits and sponsorships, icre will be additional costs. (Financial help in setting up this ear s travel shows has come from the South Pacific Tourism -ouncil, AIDAB and the South Pacific Trade Commission.) Not the least additional cost will be the cost of the people

Tradewinds

needed to man the stand to promote the product, follow leads and search out new ones. Making contacts and following them up is a vital task for anybody exhibiting at a trade show.

There are two kinds of trade promo tions those that are designed to sell to agents and the trade, and those that sell directly to the public. Sometimes they will be combined, as with the travel show, which has times set aside for trade only.

At a show mounted for trade, every body who comes through the door is a potential customer and the businessman can be effective right away. If it’s a travel show, the best business is done with travel agents, who will be selling your destination, and therefore the job is to enthuse them about what you have to offer. If they are convinced, they will sell it selectively to their customers and

they almost certainly know their customers better than you do.

Dealing directly with the general public in a trade promotion is usually not as effectiive as dealing with trade, but it can be effective in a travel show. Everyone of those 90,000 who will attend the Sydney and Melbourne shows, and others who will attend the concerts in Canberra and the regional centres, can be seen as a potential holiday maker — if not this year, then next year or the one after.

Trade promotions are, as I say, trade tools. They can be an exciting vehicle to help your business, but nonetheless a vehicle that may or may not take you to the end of the road.

The other day I atended a course in “conflict resolution” — in the methods by which conflicts of interest, particularly in business, can be resolved. It’s worth noting that there are three courses open when people can’t agree.

Litigation is often the first course taken, and probably the worst. It’s expensive and time-consuming for the parties (and for the government and taxpayers who pay for the judicial system) and a decision is imposed on the litigants. In the end,

usually nobody is happy.

Arbitration is when the parties agree to have somebody independent of them make a decision, which may not be decided strictly on the basis of law, but rather on common sense. Courts can order parties to go to arbitration and

frequently do.

Mediation is a third course, and judges can also order litigants to mediate. Mediation takes a shorter time, perhaps two or three days, and decisions are not imposed on the parties.

They get help to work out a solution between themselves. That way they can live with the result.

Mediation should be the first method used, not the last, particularly in the Pacific Islands, where it fits well with the consensus style of life. □

Bill

Mccabe