With a challenging year looming ahead, travel leaders say that it is even more critical for companies to focus on staff training, motivation and retention, as this has a direct impact on customer service.

Indeed, the old adage that happy employees equal happy customers has never rung more true because those would be the companies abled to retain their customers and better equipped to ride out the turbulent days head.

At WIT-Web in Travel, held in Singapore in October, a panel of CEOs agreed that keeping staff motivation high and improving customer service were top of their priorities for 2009.

Mr Robert Bailey, President and CEO of Abacus International, emphasised the importance of making processes easier and more efficient "by taking complexities out of the business" in order to better service the customer.

"If you make it easy to do business, you get business. It also means happier, more motivated staff. People need to work with and do business with companies they trust. In uncertain times, you need to build on trust."

Mr Ric Leutwyler, President of Utell Hotels & Resorts, said that now was the time to get customer-focused.

In troubled times, he said, people tended to hunker down, get internally focused and cut costs. "The ones who focus on the customer will come out on the winning side. If you are internally focused, you may get through it financially but you will not be positioned for the long-term."

Mr Hans Lerch, who was CEO of Switzerland-based Kuoni Travel, one of the world's biggest travel groups, also believes that "happy people" are the best defence against the challenging times ahead.

Speaking at a recent incentive travel event held in the region, Mr Lerch said that "well-managed companies that are able to create a climate of entrepreneurship and thereby build high levels of motivation, hold a true strategic advantage".

This is especially so in the tourism industry, where more often than not the product is the service provided for holiday-makers, he added.

Mr Lerch, who spent 35 years of his career with Kuoni, said that an entrepreneurial climate can only come about if management accepts the occasional mistake. "Motivated people don't make them deliberately but they do make them.

"To create a climate conducive to entrepreneurship and innovation - let them make mistakes. And let them know that their heads will not be chopped off if something sometimes goes wrong."

"Let them know too, that if the same thing goes wrong more than once, there might be a problem. But the important issue is to accept that nobody is perfect and to include this infinite wisdom in a management culture."

Mr Lerch said that while times were certainly not as "happy-go-lucky" as they were just 18 months ago, "people will continue to travel - albeit somewhat less."

"Our industry has to face up to these challenges - we are not alone in this. Some parts of our business need to be redefined.

"Those whose business it is to act as an intermediary need to re-think their model. Disintermediation is the word and as they have no product and the service they provide is the product, such businesses, more than others, should manage for performance and avoid bureaucracies."

And he added, "A closely knit and motivated employee base is far better prepared to deal with whatever further challenges the world is preparing for us."