MICE Conversations: a podcast for the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Events industry
MICE Conversations: a podcast for the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Events industry
#7: 'MICE Conversations' - Rannveig Snorradottir, Obeo Travel DMC Iceland and Namibia
'MICE Conversations'. In this episode we talk with Rannveig Snorradottir, Managing Director, Obeo Travel DMC, who is based between Iceland and Namibia. Obeo Travel is a DMC for both Namibia and Iceland. Prior to establishing Obeo Travel DMC 13 years ago Rannveig worked for Qatar Airways in Norway and also Tumlare DMC in London. Rannveig was born in Iceland but grew up in Namibia.
More about Rannveig Snorradottir and Obeo Travel.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rannveig-snorradottir-90962220/
http://www.obeo-travel.com/
This interview was recorded Monday April 19th 2021.
This pocast is also available as a video, on the TravelMedia.ie YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/rp2HfFxB9PM
Topics and questions, timeline or video chapters.
00:00 - Intro and Rannveig's background in travel.
02:00 - How is Iceland today, protocols, restrictions, vaccinations etc?
03:15 - Closed boarders and quarantine hotels?
05:45 - Over-tourism pre-COVID and preparedness going forward.
08:40 - Roadmaps. Government and industry working together.
11:55 - MICE demand. Wait and see. Winter not summer. Safe places.
13:33 - Safe travel. Remote travel.
15:05 - Namibia. Wide open. Low numbers. A safe place. Everything is open. One test.
19:18 - Namibia. Great opportunity. Under the radar. Groups/events are already back.
20:53 - Incentive travel in Namibia.
21:35 - The remainder of 2021, Iceland or Namibia?
22:57 - Outro. Contact details. Thank you and an urupting volcano (May 2021).
TravelMedia.ie run Ireland's only outbound MICE networking event, the MICE Meetup Dublin.
https://www.travelmedia.ie/mice-meetup-dublin/
(bright upbeat music)- Hello everybody and welcome to another MICE Conversation. Today we are joined by Rannveig Snorradottir who's the Managing Director of Obeo Travel DMC in Iceland or Iceland and Namibia. But we'll explain in a moment. Rannveig thank you very much for joining us. It's great to have you with us. I'm intrigued maybe you might explain to our viewers the Iceland and Namibia connection. My understanding is you were born in Iceland but raised in Namibia. Is that correct?- That's absolutely correct. Hi Michael, thanks for having me. Yes, it's as simple as that. So I've always said that as a DMC, you have to have the proper passion and knowledge. You need to know the country better than anyone else. So that's simply the fact with myself when I established Obeo Travel, then being Icelandic my passion is obviously here and raised in Namibia. I always say I left my heart down in Namibia. So we have an office there as well.- And you've been up and running since 2016 but the travel industry is in your blood. You've been doing this for a long time. Can you just fill us in on what you were doing before that?- Yeah, that's true. So I think I've been in the industry now 13 years approximately starting as a little girl here in Iceland and a small little travel agency family run in Iceland, went out into the big world where I moved to London and worked with one of the largest DMCs out there called Tumlare worked with them for six years, doing Iceland and actually all of Europe as destinations for customers. And then I decided to try the airline world for a little bit. I went through Qatar Airways where I was the manager for Norway with Qatar, but then I got this opportunity to establish my own back in 2016. And I jumped at that five years ago now. So Obeo established Obeo DMC.- So you've a unique perspective in terms of, you're the most northern region in Europe. And then you're in Southern Africa. Can you first maybe start with Iceland and give us, I suppose, an update and where Iceland is today in terms of protocols, restrictions, vaccinations, et cetera, obviously all from a travel perspective?- Yeah, so Iceland has done very well in terms of handling COVID from the start. It was very impressive and the world was watching a bit because we did this track and trace immediately. And we are lucky that we are such a tiny population. So it went very well. And I think a bit of key to the success here as well was that we hid the governments and we let the scientists and the professionals talk. They spoke to the nation at two o'clock every single day to update with everything and they tested everyone in Iceland. Also those that have no symptoms or anything that way they could actually find the cases very quickly and isolate them. And with the track and trace, they could isolate everyone immediately who came into contact with those. So it all went very well and we had a COVID free summer in Iceland last year. Pretty much it was back to normal, but now much like everywhere else in Europe it has been hitting us a bit again and again COVID.- [Michael} Did you have to close your borders to keep the numbers down or did you allow travel last summer?- This is actually interesting,'cause this is a lot in the media now is this whole closed borders thing. I don't think there is such a thing as closed borders because we still need goods, we need expertise flying in, we need Icelanders to come back home and so on. But as we see it in tourism, we are essentially closed borders as it is, and have been since August where we have now very, very strict protocol. It is two tests, which now has been increased actually to three tests plus five day quarantine. So these regulations are in place until 1st of May.- Okay and those are all the PCR tests that you're using.- Those are PCR. Yeah, so you need a PCR before arriving and then you test, as soon as you land at our airports, you test for free there. Then you're quarantined for five days and take another test for free as well. And then you're free to go.- Quarantine means quarantined at home or quarantine on a government facility?- This has been changing recently, but you quarantine at home for those who cannot do so, they are provided quarantine accommodation free of charge as it has been. But I said, like I said, this has been changing a little bit in recent weeks'cause now they want to really put everyone into quarantine hotels but they can't do that here. It's actually illegal to do so. Yeah, so that was very interesting'cause they did launch it for a couple of days until somebody realized hang on, this is illegal. They cannot make me go to a closed off quarantine hotel when I have a home to quarantine in. So that's all been a bit interesting, these regulations run out 1st of May. So we are now just waiting for the latest updates and we have been promised the color code system 1st of May'cause we in tourism, we obviously we keep screaming and shouting that we need some transparency. We need some kind of roadmap, some kind of help that we can plan forward because tourism takes time and we can't just know two or three days in advance what's going to happen. So we're now just holding our breath waiting to see what happens 1st of May but most likely the color-coding system quite similar to what the UK are doing now--- The traffic lights.- The traffic lights yeah. So green and red and, and all that then.- Can we stick actually, but we'll come to the Namibia maybe in a minute and stick with Iceland but we're discussing it. What's interesting about the fact you said it was discovered to be illegal 'cause in Ireland at the moment, we now have the most restrictive travel quarantine system and we're the only country in Europe that restricts other European citizens from traveling in. So we're effectively closed in many ways and there are multiple challenges in the courts at the moment, over at the hotel quarantine system. So it's interesting to see that you went through the same process. Can I kind of jump into the tourism side of it though? It interesting that, Iceland was kind of an excuse the pun, the hottest country around for a number of years, it was very trendy, very cool another pun. And, I wonder is that beneficial now? Has this given Iceland time to maybe pause and have a think about the fact that maybe they were suffering from over tourism, will you come out of this differently do you think, or are you rushing to get back to where you were before?- This is a very interesting topic, Michael and absolutely on spot there with that question because during COVID, people have stepped back, the mass tourism that happened here in recent years, just before COVID, it was a little bit scary and we weren't prepared to be just completely blunt about that. And we believe that Icelandic tourism operations be it, hotels, coaches, whatever it is all went a bit out of control in terms of over-service actually to be honest 'cause salaries are very high in Iceland. So I liked that phrase that my friend said when everything was at the peak, she said we've never been as busy with as little money in pockets because that's basically what happened. Nobody was ready. So everyone was hiring staff left and right and nobody knew what they were doing. And it was all a bit of a mess. So now actually the tourism here has stepped back, taken a breather and I hear from all of my friends here in the industry that let's use the opportunity now and reorganize the company, do things better. What can we do better when we come back into this? It's not, I believe that we're going to try to tone down the volume as such, because of course we want to welcome people to Iceland and any type of traveler as well. It's just a question of us being more prepared, our infrastructure, for example as well in our beautiful natural sites, we need toilets, we need pathways and so on. So this has all been a very hot topic in Iceland since COVID. And I see it and hear it every single day that the industry here is changing in terms of they will be better prepared coming out of COVID.- And this brings me then to the next question in Ireland, for example, I know the UK is similar. The industry has been asking for a roadmap and multiple reports. And I think we're onto our third industry report now. And the first two reports in Ireland, the government effectively ignored even though they commissioned them and we're on our third now release last week. And earlier today, in fact I was speaking to Karen Yue the editor of TTG Asia and they've had a completely different approach which is 100% collaborative as in the government have led the way in terms of allowing MICE to open in terms of setting the protocols, in terms of testing, trialing, understanding and they'd be doing this consistently. And as a result, they haven't had the see-saw which is open, close, open, close, which a lot of Europe has had. The government engaging with you as an industry, travel, tourism, MICE is the industry vocal and pushing or how is it developing?- Well, the industry is pushing for sure. And especially with the transparency, the good thing about Iceland is how reliant we are on tourism. So there is talk between tourism our official tourism boards and the governments. And that is also why they have been trying the government here. They have been trying to kind of make it easier on the border. The problem here basically is that the public don't agree. So living on this Island, you really hear loud voices with the public here saying close those borders, close those borders. That's where the virus is coming in and so on. So that's a conflict that the government obviously need to need to work through, but sadly we don't have a clear roadmap I'm afraid at the moment. I wish I could tell you otherwise,'cause of course this is what we're begging for. And there are no special conditions as such. You can come here as media or you can ask for an exemption from the restrictions quarantine and so on, but very limited, all we are doing at the moment to be honest is waiting actually, we are optimistic that the summer will prove some form of normality getting back to normal a little bit and come winter we all believe very strongly that we'll be good to go. We'll be done with hurd immunity, vaccination and all that, but it's a waiting game at the moment.- That's interesting. Ireland obviously it has great similarities and that we're a country that relies heavily on travel and tourism, not extensively but it is a huge part of our GDP. Yeah, Interesting.- Yeah, we don't, we very often actually wished that they would take us a bit more seriously here to be honest, but it is closed and there is nothing that we're actually doing now other than we're actually now though, we are seeing a bit of lights at the end of the tunnel. So I feel that tourism in Iceland has started preparing themselves. So they're actually starting to hire back now staff and feeling okay, this we are just about to get started. We feel so things are opening up again hotels and all kinds of services.- That's good to hear. Tell me, I am aware that you have satellite offices in Norway and the UK and Namibia and obviously in Ireland as well. What are you hearing from your customers in terms of are you getting inquiries yet? Are you starting to plan with your customers in terms of the kind of let's say groups on MICE business that you would normally have done, will that come back in the same way or has it changed?- Well, for us MICE, we haven't heard, I'm afraid. We haven't gotten requests to either Iceland nor Namibia with MICE. We had a number of MICE events booked last year and sadly only one of them have actually rescheduled. So hoping to come, they've actually rescheduled four times through COVID, but otherwise we actually do feel at the moment that companies are holding back. They're just saying we have to wait and see it is too much money, it is too much of a risk to really start planning while there is still this uncertainty going on. So for us, it has actually been a bit silent in terms of MICE, but I very strongly do believe that it will pick up quite fast once we crawl out of this because now I think companies increasingly will be looking at safe places and that will be important. And for Iceland and Namibia, if there's ever a safe place to go post COVID it would be these places where there are no people just nature and space.- Yeah, that was my next question, because I'm certainly seeing that as a trend, which is that, in hotels, for example, you know, villas on property or selling out before rooms, hotel, business class seats are selling out in airlines before economy seats, not business travel but actually people who just want the safety or the space that a Business Class or front of cabin product offers. And I'm hearing, yeah, I'm hearing this in terms of people saying, well remote travel, remote tourism or certain meetings where people are not in a crowded city or a metropolitan area but I would have imagined Iceland would be at the fore there.- Absolutely agree and this we do notice we actually noticed that Reykjavik is, that used to be the only place really people come to during the winter months. So they stay in the city and then they go out to exploring from there as a base all the requests that we're getting now, be it, the leisure traveler or business traveler. They now look at the countryside of Iceland. And even though that basically costs private transfers and so on, that's not a factor at the moment seems to be, they prefer to go into some of those smaller countryside hotels, where you either have your own private apartment or villa or a hotel that simply has few rooms and you're located in the middle of nowhere. We know there's a huge spike in those, yeah.- So hotel takeovers are becoming more more common.- Yeah, definitely.- Okay, could we move to Namibia then? Maybe you could tell us what's happening in Namibia at the moment and where they are in terms of meetings, MICE, incentive, travel, and so on.- That's an interesting one because interestingly enough Namibia has been wide open throughout this whole thing. And Namibia has very low numbers with COVID and now they have started vaccination and everything. So Namibia is a safe place to go and it is open and we actually have more people traveling through Oboe Travel to Namibia than Iceland, which may seem insane but it is for the simple reason that you need one negative PCR test not older than 72 hours to come into Namibia and that's it. And then you can go and the lodges are open throughout all of Namibia. All the services are there. So to be honest, I jumped over to Namibia in December because I got really COVID tired and I just needed a COVID break. So I went to Namibia and I got exactly that. There was just no COVID there no restrictions, no problems. So we are getting quite a lot of business coming into Namibia as we speak.- Talk me through the practicalities of that you need a PCR test. I did read seven days, seven days or 72 hours.- Oh, they actually did change that to seven days. So when I went in December it was 72 hours, but now they're like, yeah as long as it's not older than seven days, yeah, that's true.- And then there was no hotel quarantine. So once you prove your tests, you arrive, you're free to go, wow.- Yeah, so border control, you go there with your passports and your paper, PCR paper show that to them and they say, enjoy off you go. And you're done.- [Michael] To me Namibia obviously as long haul travel coming from where I am in Europe, how does that affect it? Or does it not affect it at all? People are happy to take a seven or an eight hour flight or 12 hour flight depending where they're coming from.- Yes, our customers, I mean, we actually do have there is so much pent-up demand that we've even received requests where people just want it to go away and they really didn't even care where. So they just quickly checked,"Rannveig do you know of anything now?" I'm like, yeah, Namibia is open. Did you know that? Okay, take me there now. And even happy to quarantine on the way back. The thing about Namibia is that we feel that in Europe at least it's not really on the map. So very often it's like is it a green country or a red country? Or what is it coming back? What are the terms?'Cause we're in my opinion, anyway we're a bit focused on Europe within Europe only. And I think the countries like Namibia, for example or just somewhere lost they're in the mix. And nobody really knows what the regulations are when you come back home. So while we know that this is what's happening coming into Namibia, which are no problems, we have to research a bit more what happens when you come home. But the interesting thing also about Namibia is how prepared they are. For example, I have a booking coming now in April and these people just want to rest and relax and they have to be out of South Africa for at least two weeks before returning home. So they're using Namibia for this because you're allowed to basically come back freely as long as it wasn't South Africa. So anyway, they need to take a test to be able to fly out of Namibia and going home. We have a service that we can actually even get a doctor on site to your lodge to test you. So like we can take care of everything on that side. And this is all included in our services as well is, okay listen, we've done the calculation. You are going to need a negative PCR to be able to board that plane back home. So we'll take care of that. We'll book that for you. We can either go on site and do the testing. We'll take you there or we even have that service that we can test you at the lodge before leaving. So I find it amazing how well prepared they are and how flexible they've been through all this.- And is Namibia pushing itself or is it just waiting like everybody else? I mean, as you say it's off the radar for most of Europeans, we're not, we wouldn't think of it automatically, but it sounds like a destination right now, that is open, that you could travel to and there is opportunity there.- There is great opportunity there. Our problem a little bit with Namibia is the tourism board. They're not quite as good as for example, South Africa. So the exposure and awareness for destination Namibia we feel is actually almost in our hands as a DMC. So it's us who are continuously promoting Namibia and telling agents about it. But the thing is that there are a lot of events taking place in Namibia, we have, for example, at the moment yeah, so just the other day there was a huge skydive group who went and based themselves for over a week in Namibia for skydiving. And these were people coming in from globally to meet up there in Namibia safely and do their skydive stuff that they have to do. So events are taking place in Namibia and the interesting thing as well especially with our we have quite a number of incentive groups in Namibia, it's typically Fly Safaris. So the incentive groups get their own aircraft or many aircraft and we privately fly them between the lodges. And this is increasingly more popular now in Namibia. so events are taking place and there was a lot of local tourism actually as well.- Yeah, so you're the first person who I've heard mentioned incentive travel because incentive travel by definition you would imagine has been shut since March of last year, but what you are saying is that in Namibia incentive travel is happening.- It is, there are events taking place and groups meeting up there because like I said, it is taking a look at the restrictions and which are basically none and all the space that can be offered and safety and private aircraft and so on.- So in terms of--- It's not a lot, I'll tell you that, but we just we see it happening though, still, which is, any kind of life these days is fantastic, isn't it? And noticeable.- Yeah and in terms of looking forward you seem to be more positive towards Namibia than Iceland at the moment, that that seems to be where the opportunity is. Do you see that continuing for the rest of this year? Do you see Iceland not happening again really until next year at this stage?- To be very honest, the reason I see this potential with Namibia now is that it is already okay to go there and has been for a long time. So, I mean, that's just the awareness part and just waiting for Europe the countries here to get their act together. Iceland, I'm going to just say completely honestly I don't see anything massive happening this summer. It's that uncertainty, Michael. It is that's why I am a little bit maybe reluctant with Iceland at the moment, because I don't know enough, to be properly promoting it. But this summer, I think that anything, any kind of tourism we get here will be a complete bonus but I very firmly believe in the winter season. So starting October and we see it, our books, our files are absolutely full for the winter. It is, has gone mad from October onwards for the Northern Lights season. So that's where we kind of keep our hopes when it comes to Iceland.- Yep, interesting, makes sense, good insight. Rannveig, thank you for your time and for your insight and obviously two completely different destinations and a very global perspective. So yeah, we'll add all of your contact details, your websites and other information to the description here on this video. So to everybody watching, you'll be able to contact Rannveig or find out more about what she does.- Can I just add one thing, Michael?- Of course you can.- That if we open up in May, I would encourage people to consider Iceland because we have an erupting volcano and it's just growing more and more at the moment. The entire valley is full of lava and new fissures keep opening up. So there you go, very lively here.- [Michael] An actual attraction that's open.- Thank you.- Rannveig, thank you again for your time and your input and we'll add all of your details as I say to the description here. So that's Rannveig Snorradottir, Managing Director of Obeo Travel DMC in Iceland. Thank you Rannveig.- Thank you Michael.(bright upbeat music)