In an effort to raise awareness and educate the Aussie travel industry about one of the biggest commission killers in the country, a new initiative, called Negcember, was launched earlier this month.
It’s the biggest killer of confidence and commission across the industry, and up until now, it’s been largely ignored and swept under the carpet as just one of those unavoidable occupational hazards.
But a new campaign launched earlier this month is seeking to finally give the neg the flick and relegate it to the canons of travel industry history through a nation-wide awareness campaign called Negcember.
According to the latest stats, one in four Australian travel agents incur at least one neg every 30 days, and 100 percent of agents have suffered significant financial cost on account of incurring a negat least once throughout their career – however, these are conservative figures.
I was deeply ashamed and embarrassed the first time I realised I was in a neg. It took me weeks to get over, and I still get nightmares about it every full moon.
John P, 33, travel agent from Brisbane.
Taking a page from the highly successful Movember campaign, which seeks to raise awareness over men’s health issues – especially mental health, Negcember will educate the travel industry and the wider Australian public about the scourge of the neg, emphasising that agents need to triple check everything on their invoices before getting the client to sign the dotted line.
Equally as important to the campaign is fostering a sense of compassion and understanding amongst the general public in the event that their local travel agent comes to them with the bad news.
It’s hoped that consumers, when faced with their agent explaining that they miscalculated the cost of their holiday, will accept the news and pay the difference, instead of it coming out of the agent’s commission.
Unlike Movember though, in which men are asked to grow their moustaches to support the campaign, Negcember is asking all Australians to show their support by wearing black and white “SAY NO TO NEGS” stickers and using the hashtag #saynotonegs throughout December.
I think this is a fantastic campaign. My whole family has gotten onboard, and it warms my heart when I see someone walking into the store wearing one of those stickers. It’s an important issue to talk about, and I’m glad someone has decided to do something about it.”
Mary S, 37, travel agent from Sydney.
As it’s only the first week of the campaign, it’s unclear at this stage just how successful the campaign is turning out to be.
But if all of us, as an industry, get behind it, perhaps we can finally say no more the nefarious neg.
Stay tuned to KarryOn for more updates on Negcember, and don’t forget to tell all your friends, family and colleagues about it…
**IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a KarryOn Comedy article and is obviously satire. It should in no way be taken seriously, unless you want to that is!