This interview was recorded on the 9th of October of 2018

Q1. Tell us a bit about DIT Portugal and the companies that make part of this management group.

Paulo Lages: “DIT Gestion started in Spain in 2008. I met it´s founder, Jon Arriaga, in 2009 and started to set up a management group in Portugal. Gradually we were creating, adapting and translating platforms, translating web pages, because in reality, at that time, and at this time also, DIT Gestion is one of the groups with more technology in the Spanish market, but due to the Portuguese market particularities, we had to adapt.

In 2015, we started as a management group in Portugal. It began as DIT Gestion Portugal and later we adapted the name until we arrived in the middle of 2016 to the definitive name … DIT Portugal. Why? Because DIT Gestion also has a branch in the Canaries that gives the name of DIT Canarias. In the Iberian market we are around 950 branches. We have an own operator that is called “Haiku Travel”, this operator has its own product, that is available to all the agencies in the group. Viagens Pisamundo also started in Spain and at the moment we already have 23 agencies. At BTL 2018 we launched the Viagens Pisamundo, here in Portugal, and at the moment we will move to 4 branches. More history of the DIT Gestion group … At the moment we are a group with own IATA, both in Spain peninsula and in the Canaries and we are creating own platforms also for the option of flights, that we also want to make available here in Portugal. We are in the phase of implementation, that is, when we have everything prepared we will provide our own flight product to Portuguese agencies.”

Q2. The DIT Portugal Group has in its genetic code its organizational personality mark. Do you want to tell us about the points that identify the genetic code of the organization?

Paulo Lages: “As I mentioned in the first question, Jon Arriaga, who is the founder of the company, comes from the tourism world and therefore has a different sensitivity. He really knew how to join the management part to the knowledge of tourism. What was generated? Proprietary technology made and developed by a team with the knowledge of what needed to be done to move from analogue to digital/technological. And then it began. We provide the full package… we have engines with own hotel integrations, car rental and cruises, and also web pages that we can provide to our agencies, everything available through our intranet. All agencies have a website with their own domain, with their own brand, and in fact our pages do not have a PDF file, which shows the promotion, nor a form… they have the entire history of the promotion and a back-office more directed to what the agencies actually need in terms of receiving information, in the fastest and most accurate way.”

Q3. The DIT Portugal Group guides its activity to meet the needs and requirements of its customers, offering innovative solutions with high added value. Is this the reason for the success of the DIT Portugal Group with customers or are there even more reasons for this?

Paulo Lages: “There are more reasons. We not only marketed and made deals with a greater number of operators and got better-delivering conditions than we had initially, but we also developed other parts than hiring or purchasing. We also work on our own technology and this helps us in a strand of what will be our future, which is to add different services or differentiated hiring to the agencies so that we can minimize their costs with direct supplies and provisioning.”

Q4. We know that you have a personal objective: to turn the DIT Portugal Group into a national benchmark, in terms of best practices in the management of travel agencies. Do you want to comment?

Paulo Lages: “Not only are we a management group, as the name implies, trying to minimize costs and help agencies to better manage what they do, but there is also a situation here that is very important to us… that is the passage of information and training. We defend that each agency must have updated knowledge, always. Destinations that are sold in one year may be completely different in the following year. The ways to sell, the ways to reach the customer, the ways to inform the destination. It´s our responsibility to explain how they can reach the customer in a differentiating way. What we wish is to have agencies different from the others, to have tools and ways of acting differently from the competition. And this is how we want to be different. We provide not only the management and hiring but we also give all the training and information support that these agencies need, which is essential in the tourism because the market is constantly innovating and the destinations changing every day.”

Paulo Lages, DIT Gestion Group, Portugal Director and José Pires, DIT Portugal Sales Manager

Q5. The DIT Portugal Group is also known as an organization that favors innovation in its internal practices. Since June 2018 that Viewtravel has been available from the group intranet, what is the balance of these 4 months and how has Viewtravel enriched your offer?

Paulo Lages: “With the integration of Viewtravel on our intranet and delivery of Viewtravel to agencies, we have come to the conclusion that our agencies interact with the customer with this application in a different way. It is not sending an email, not sending a file in Excel, PDF or Word, it is not writing on a sheet a budget that we want to give the client. It is to reach the client technologically, providing not only management but also adding training, technology and differentiation. Receiving a budget through Viewtravel during a dinner of friends can be a reason for conversation … “I have now received a budget from my agency, … would you like to see?,” and everyone “I’ve never seen this …”. This is one more reason why we chose Viewtravel, in reality, we see that it has a huge potential to reach customers. We started with the Viagens Pisamundo where it is integrated into the marketing part and promotion of the Viagens Pisamundo. So, all the Viagens Pisamundo will have this platform because, in reality, we want the Viagens Pisamundo to be a franchise different from what exists. We want people looking to Viagens Pisamundo as an agency that has the knowledge, has the professionalism and has technology different from what they are used to.”

Q6. The DNA of the DIT Portugal Group is unique. What is the secret of this differentiation when compared to other similar companies?

Paulo Lages: “Our founder, Jon Arriaga, is the source of our uniqueness. He is a person who started a company from scratch, with all the knowledge, know-how of a travel agency and tour operator and turned everything into technology. This is what we want to pass to the market. The message that we are different and that we provide different options to the agencies that work with us…, so that these agencies can innovatively reach the customer!”

José Pires: “Our base DNA is … we are more than a management group. We invest in proximity, we work closely with the agencies, and this allows us to help the agencies become more profitable and reduce their costs. The closer we are to the agencies.. closer to the travel agent, the more we learn to improve our service and the way we perform. We are not here just to be a central purchasing office and negotiate commissions with tour operators. We have to be more than that. We have to be present in all parts of the travel agency business. All parts of the business … everything that has to do with the agency telecommunications, training, technology, … we have to be present in all areas. Our role as a management group is to be more than a management group. It is to overcome that part of the contract negotiation, which anyone does. We will have to create a whole set of added value, things that take away concern from travel agencies. The agency asks for… I need this, … we have it…, I need that, … we have it, … it’s these kinds of concerns that guarantee that the agency will waste less time, will worry less about accessory things… leave that part to us and focus on selling! We have a problem, we need to train a person… DIT Portugal sends a professional to be there a whole morning or an entire afternoon to give training on a certain aspect. We need to train the software… we’ll be there one morning. We’ll teach Viewtravel, we’ll teach what it takes for the agency to take advantage of the software and we’re including it as much as possible with a fair price. And it´s not only a matter of price, we believe in Viewtravel as a good thing to promote sales and differentiation.”

Paulo Lages: “At the moment we have the DIT Academy active which is a training option for independent agencies. If a travel agent wants to refresh and make an update of what is the new world and the tourism market we make available a training week… we offer what is necessary for the travel agent to become updated with all the news and all the new ways of working. A travel agency says… I want to hire a person, but in reality, during their daily activities there´s no time or availability to do it, we will become responsible for this task. They have the person there and no one will be able to give the necessary attention. We are available to give this training. We invest in proximity. We are creating a relationship of proximity, we are visiting agencies and we are doing analysis, we are providing one-to-one consultancy services that help orientate to the right direction, to point to new markets, to new options, to new software, or new solutions. For example, this month we will launch a hotel booking engine that compares the best options… works as a comparator, that allows the selection from 5, 6, 10… operators… check what is the best price… and define where I wish to make the reservation.”

Q7. Viewtravel made any difference? What is the added value that Viewtravel brings to DIT Portugal? Tell us a bit about Viewtravel and the impact it has had on travel agencies that provide support and management services and how do you enrich your offer?

Paulo Lages: “We started in March 2018 with the marketing of Viagens Pisamundo and Viewtravel was one of the tools that we included in the package for these agencies, why? Because in reality, we have not only seen the great potential that this software brings to us as a management group, but also how it helps the agencies towards their clients. After starting with Viagens Pisamundo, we started to expand Viewtravel to other travel agencies of the group. Nowadays we are promoting Viewtravel and some agencies are requesting Viewtravel by themselves because they have seen the benefits of using it. In fact, all those who already work with Viewtravel have already transmitted us that in terms of customer approach and customer satisfaction this is a great productivity tool. Viewtravel as all the necessary trip information, it´s easy to look for images and video, it helps sell better, and brings an effective return on sales, that are increasing due to the platform usage.”

Q8. In future terms, what is the vision of the DIT Group? And how can Viewtravel help you achieve a more prosperous future?

Paulo Lages: “With Viewtravel we’ve added more service. What we really want is to provide better services and options to travel agents so that they have their life simplified. We want to facilitate their work… and Viewtravel really came to facilitate, a lot, everybody’s life. It changed the way you provide the trip information to the customer. It helps the customer before, during and after the trip, … not only provides the travel agent proposal and financial information about the trip, but also provides useful information like… what is the type of plug available on that country, the type of electricity, what is the currency, which is the time difference, which is the climate,… and with the new directive is necessary not only to verbalize, but also to contractualize all these changes. Viewtravel also adds more value by providing the information that the final customer needs. Last, but not least Viewtravel allows the agent travels to reduce the number of “complaints”, or prevent requests for help because, in fact, the final customer has always available his proposal and travel itinerary information with him.”

Below you have the original recording in Portuguese (PT) language. Click to start listening.