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Welcome to the September edition of Mandy’s online diary, your insight into what is going on in the world of Bales!
Mandy Nickerson (nee Bales) Managing Director
September- Diary Entry 1 It is never easy to talk about events such as the shootings that happened in Amman, the capital city of Jordan, today. I find myself, as I’m sure we all do, going through a series of thoughts and emotions, from the initial reaction of ‘How awful’, through to ‘Was it someone I know?’, ‘Is it someone from the UK?’, and the inevitable, ‘Is it one of our customers?’ Everybody is so effected by a tragedy such as this, and it certainly makes me value life – everybody’s life is precious, and what happened in Jordan could have happened to anyone, anywhere, but from a commercial point of view this kind of event always feels so close and so personal.

September- Diary Entry 2 Violence and destruction is a worldwide phenomenon – there were a total of 859 homicide offences recorded in the UK in 2004/05 – and people must bear this in mind when booking travel abroad. The Middle East has seen it’s far share of difficult times, especially this year with the violence in the Lebanon, and especially within the tourism sector, which has been hit hard by such atrocities, but Jordan is by definition, is a ‘safe house with noisy neighbours’ and this shooting as far as we know had no connection to any religious groups – it was simply a ‘freak occurrence’. I was away from the office on the day of the shootings, and usually in times like these I would be straight on the phone to find out how my team are handling queries and enquiries. On this occasion however I left them to their expertise and was delighted that they had taken the initiative to contact the families of those travelling with us to assure them that they relatives in Jordan were safe. I’m sure this peace of mind must have been invaluable for those families, and of course my sincere sympathies go out to the family of the young man from Birmingham whose life was taken.

September - Diary Entry 3 Part of my brief as MD of Bales is to look at strategy and revenue streams, and after a long time in planning I am delighted to be have been given the green light to launch our inbound tourism product – which is literally a role reversal of what we do, and will be providing tours with an educational, cultural or business theme to travellers coming into the UK from abroad. The launch starts with visitors from China, which we hope to expand, and will see us create a brochure and website in Chinese to promote this new service. Fortunately for me, we have a wonderful contact here in the UK to help us develop this product – no need for me to learn Chinese!

September - Diary Entry 4 We are also working on producing a website for repatriation services. At present, a core part of our business comes from medical companies who provide services for people living, travelling and working abroad – they use us to repatriate travellers back to the UK when they need medical assistance where it cannot be provided in the country that they are visiting. The website we are working on will help towards the promoting the service even further, thus hopefully expanding this important revenue stream for us.

September - Diary Entry 5 I am a member of BORGES – a collection of travel industry veterans who I get together with every three months or so for dinner. Sadly, one of the group, Roland Castro of ‘Time Off’ (a short break holidays company) passed away just prior to our most recent dinner. The rest of the group and I however still held the dinner, in honour of Roland, as I know he would have wanted us to have done, to exchange stories and celebrate the life of this hugely popular man. September - Diary Entry 6 It was Roland’s funeral today, and there were eight or nine people who had been chosen from a league of close friends to speak about him at the crematorium. I came away with the feeling that you never really appreciate the kaleidoscope of a person’s full personality until it’s too late, and if anything today has taught me to appreciate the people around me, and to encourage more openness amongst one another – myself included. It was amazing to see though how much laughter there was today, as guests remembered stories and encounters – it was actually quite uplifting, heart-warming, which for all of us there today was extremely important. September - Diary Entry 7 One of my tasks is to step in to the fold when one of my staff is on extended leave, as is the case right now with our HR Director. It’s a responsibility I have given myself, and which I fully enjoy as it gives me the chance to get close to the staff in the office – if anything it makes me realise how much each member of staff contributes greatly to the successful running of Bales, but also how sorely people are missed when they are not in the office! September - Diary Entry 8 Interesting times business wise, as the staggered release of our new brochures comes to an end. Initial impact was slow because the brochures went out at weekly intervals over a six week period, but now that they are all out there we can begin to evaluate, by region, which are the most popular destinations and tours, which will have an obvious benefit to our database going forward. This move away from one large brochure to regional brochures is a first for us and allows us to show-off our specialist knowledge and experience and provides customers' with a wider choice. September - Diary Entry 9 We are currently looking at ways to increase customer interaction, through our website, through one to one contact, through research, and through our customer newsletter, Bales World. Travel experiences are one of the most important aspects of people's lives and are increasingly becoming indispensable.