SKAL aims for renewal

A NEW strategic direction for travel industry body SKAL is underway with changes to the Australian organisation addressing gender imbalance within the membership, new club openings and its appeal to younger members.

Speaking with TD ahead of an event in Sydney last night, president of SKAL Australia Fiona Macfarlane spoke about tackling these challenges and making the necessary changes within her current 18-month tenure.

“Back in its heyday, SKAL was very well known as a bit of an old boys club and it’s kind of lost its way a bit, but we’re starting to get that appeal back and this time on a new track,” Macfarlane said.

When elected in Mar 2016, Macfarlane was the youngest president and only the second female to command top spot.

Referring to past presidents as “a little more old school”, Macfarlane cites her background in digital technology as giving her greater poise to drive the organisation forward.

“When I came in, I redeveloped the website, scrapped the old one, brought in email marketing and launched our social media channels as well,” she said.

Macfarlane was also tasked with bringing the average age of the membership down and recruiting more female members.

“We’re on target. We’ve brought the average age down from 56 to 54. And our female membership has gone up too,” she added.

Her work to date continues to pay off with the first new club in years about to open in Alice Springs adding 30 new members and new clubs mooted for Port Macquarie and Byron Bay in NSW.

“We’re growing our membership in regional areas and this tends to skew younger”.

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