Nigel Pilkington, president of Skal International
NIGEL Pilkington, president of Skal International, a professional association of tourism leaders worldwide, has urged his club leaders in Asia-Pacific to not only grow their membership but also reduce the average age of members.
Today, there are 37 membership clubs in Asia-Pacific, with members totalling more than 2,300.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the 49th Skal Asia Congress in Singapore last week, Pilkington said: “Asia-Pacific membership is growing – we inaugurated the Krabi club recently (July 2015) – but not at its full potential, especially since the tourism business is booming in this region.
“Tourism growth in Asia-Pacific has surpassed that of other regions in the world, but Skal’s membership here makes up only 15 per cent of the total. I would like Asia-Pacific membership to make up 20 per cent in the next five years.”
He added: “Asia-Pacific’s growing importance in the world tourism market also makes it imperative that Skal gets a stronger Asia-Pacific voice on the board. Now it is just me, from New Zealand, and Jason (Samuel, director) from India. I need more members from this region to stand up for higher office.”
Meanwhile, Skal’s global membership numbers have been declining, as the speed of replacing retiring members with new blood has been slow.
A study on membership demographics is now underway, but Pilkington expects the largest population to fall within the 55- to 65-year-old age bracket.
Pilkington said the ageing membership problem is “common across associations of all industries”.
He explained: “Young people are time-poor and believe that they have many other more important things to do than to sit in an association. That’s very different from us (from the older generation) who see participation in our industry association as a way of giving back to a community that had supported our career.”
“Skal needs to demonstrate value to new tourism professionals, and some ways we could do that is to emphasise the powerful global business network we have and involve them in sustainability or social media projects which they have knowledge and interest in,” he said, adding that it is up to club members to “identify young professionals in their market who have leadership potential and engage them in Skal activities”.
