Page 14 - StudyTravel Magazine November/December 2021 Issue

AGeNcy Q&A AGeNcy of the

moNth

INDustry speAKs This month,

CAESA MENA
This issue, Paolo Barilari, President http://www.
of felcA, talks about how the role of caesa-mena.
associations has become even more evident com in Morocco
during the global pandemic. has been
nominated by Londonist www.
londonist.co.uk in the UK. Umang
Gandecha, at the accommodation
provider, explains.

Umang Gandecha

“Londonist has been
working with CAESA MENA since
https://www.felca.org/ 2019 and we have since built a very
felca@felca.org strong partnership with both Zineb
and her students. What makes
Number of members: 15 CAESA MENA diff erent and unique is
Types of members: national association of education the personal experience they give
agents to all the students which in turn
matches the ideology we have at
what has FELCA achieved/implemented during the pandemic? Londonist. During a very diffi cult
The role of FELCA, as well as the role of all national agent associations and year due to the global pandemic
school associations, has grown and become more evident. A global crisis like CAESA MENA was extremely
the one caused by Covid-19 has stimulated a global response from all actors co-operative. The commitment
in our sector. A growth in awareness and in the importance of associations Zineb has shown all her students
I believe will continue even after Covid-19 will fi nally disappear. Aided by has further enhanced the reputation
technology, meetings between associations have intensifi ed and this has of CAESA MENA.”
consolidated a common ground for discussion that has also opened up
issues that had been fl oating around unresolved for some time.
zineb
Tell us about your recent collaborations? Benslimane,
The collaboration with ALTO is based on mutual help in launching surveys on CAESA MENA,
the economic reality of agencies at this time of crisis, and also on the future Morocco
development prospects of our work. In addition, FELCA will soon open two
discussion panels with IALC schools. One will discuss the escrow accounts “At the heart of CAESA MENA,
system and the other the hypothesis of a global contract. The choice of IALC whether it is within our company,
is signifi cant. IALC is an international association of high quality schools and our cherished student community
this will allow us to talk about these two very important topics. or our relationship with our loyal and
devoted business partners, is the
Have you been able to promote/grow the FELCA brand? element of trust. As the pandemic
Within our sector, FELCA’s increased activity, stimulated by the emergency, hit, we faced logistic issues we have
has served to put the association’s name in the spotlight. With Covid-19 still never needed to deal with. Londonist
in place, FELCA’s main actions will be to increase the number of affi liated as- has been our most fl exible part-
sociations and to communicate more directly with individual FELCA agencies. ner. They have taken great care to
resolve issues raised by our stu-
Read more at: https://studytravel.network/magazine/issues/815 dents and we are grateful for that!”

NOvEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 11