MEDMAR COMPANY PROFILE

MEDMAR was set up in 1990 in response to a need to provide cost-effective travel products and services to marine industry operators world-wide. In the short period of time it has been operating, MEDMAR has grown to become one of the recognised leaders in the field of marine travel.

By understanding the specific requirements of marine industries and the difficulties involved in operating ships, MEDMAR management and staff are in a position to deal expertly, promptly and efficiently with a variety of travel related issues such as budgeting, obtaining optimal fares, optimising routing, resolving logistics etc. – that face its Clients daily.

MEDMAR continued to develop this niche expertise and has in the process acquired an in-depth understanding of marine and offshore industries that derives from decades of experience in Marine Travel with an unparalleled diversity of its Team’s expertise in Ship Management, Shipping Companies, Ships’ Agencies and Travel Agency Services. Added to that is MEDMAR staff’s expertise in utilising the latest technology and travel tools such as Amadeus and Galileo CRSs (Computer Reservation Systems) and Global Fares databases, giving MEDMAR the ability to offer its Clients access to a vast and constantly updated flights and seats databases in order to obtain last minute availability and schedules on a global basis whilst meeting Clients’ budgetary expectations.

Changes in the marine industries, such as the growth in offshore explorations and the general increase in merchant navy and leisure cruise industries, has been recognised by the airline industry who responded by further developing their marine fares products. MEDMAR, as a long-term partner of major airlines, has benefited by having access to the latest and most competitive marine fares, including offshore fares, available nowadays.

Being an IATA-registered agency, MEDMAR has the knowledge, technology and capacity to service all of its Clients’ travel needs, including corporate and executive business travel requirements encompassing hotel and car rental bookings.

MEDMAR has focused on purchasing tickets locally, thus securing the best local fares, which tend to be much more competitively priced, and on taking advantage of exchange rate fluctuations. These benefits are then passed to its Clients.

A rather unique policy of MEDMAR’s is to advise its Clients on where and how to achieve best possible fares if MEDMAR couldn’t provide the cheapest possible fare. This transparency has benefited both its Clients and MEDMAR, whose reward is client loyalty and appreciation of MEDMAR’s openness and honesty.

In the process, MEDMAR has grown more than 10-fold over the last decade. The growth could have been even more spectacular but for a policy decision not to expand too much and too fast as that would have inevitably led to higher costs or degraded service to Clients. MEDMAR’s is an operation that prides itself on being extremely client and service focused and on providing the cheapest possible service without compromising its quality.

MEDMAR has now reached a stage when it is ready for further expansion, provided it can offer prospective Clients the right service at the right price.

MEDMAR MISSION

Profitably to provide competitively priced, highest quality marine travel products and services to our Clients, thus ensuring their long-term custom and loyalty.

WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE MEDMAR?

• MEDMAR offers a unique blend of lowest charges, best routing, total non-stop 24/7/365 support with unparalleled reliability and professionalism
• MEDMAR offers its Clients and their Crew Managers a portfolio of services that optimise their travel management and budget
• MEDMAR has established strategic alliances with key international airline carriers securing fully refundable and modifiable tickets, providing financial benefits to our clients by operating at exceptionally small profit margins
• MEDMAR has developed its IT systems, which optimise Clients’ travel itineraries

COMPLEMENTARY TRAVEL SERVICES

A full palette of services

MEDMAR offers to its clients and their travel managers a full palette of services that both optimise their travel management and reduce their travel related costs. Through our Online Booking, LowFare Process, Global Hotel Directory and our 24-hour Global Assistence the travellers have all the convenience and our clients benefit from the accrued savings.

• Urgent issuing of tickets, i.e. e-Ticket
• Corporate, Marine, Offshore and Leisure Travel Assistance
• Itinerary Optimization
• Follow-up support
• Professional and dedicated care
• 24/7/365 Coverage
• Global 24 Hour Emergency Assistance +385 99 333 4222
• Provision of a Business Travel Account
• Travel Information on 10,000 cities

TRAVEL GUIDANCE

Visa requirements, health risks etc.

MEDMAR offer consultant guidance on the full range of information about travel destination and health risks likely to be encountered at specific destinations and associated with different types of travel. MEDMAR provides appropriate advice, whether concerning recommended vaccinations, protection against insects and other disease factors, and safety in different environmental settings.
The traveller receives basic reference information about travel destination:

• visa requirements
• vaccination requirements & health risks
• climate and weather
• public holidays
• people and geography
• economy
• government
• communications and transport
• security issues

MEDMAR’S STRATEGY

Our Mission has explicitly set what we needed to achieve. That made it easier for us to define the key elements of our strategy:

• Customer Care
• Competitive Prices
• Knowledge & Expertise
• Partnerships
• Technology
• Business Development

Customer Care

MEDMAR has adopted the best practices from CRM (Customer Relationship Management) disciplines and has appointed to each Client a dedicated Account Manager, who takes full responsibility for customer care. We have extended this concept such that we truly provide 24/7/365 service to our Clients. And we mean exactly that – all hours of a day, all days of a year!!!

Competitive Prices

In order to be successful we had to ensure that we could offer the best prices possible to our Clients. This meant that we had to resolve some conflicting objectives at times, such as securing agreements and contracts with travel suppliers at rates offered to much larger agencies only, whilst controlling our costs emphatically and proactively. Only by operating at lowest possible costs and margins could we price our services Competitive Pricing such that these are hardly ever rivalled.

Knowledge & Expertise

MEDMAR has consciously selected and developed its Team members over the years it has been in business. We have created a multinational, multi-lingual and multicultural Team with many years of experience in marine travel, marine industries, leisure travel, account management, customer relationship management and partnership development. We select people with the right background and expertise in latest technologies deployed in marine and travel industries and we train our staff to become expert travel consultants.

Partnerships

Our staff are our partners. Consequently, we have had hardly any staff turnover over the last 12 years. That means that the accumulated and growing expertise is constantly benefiting our Clients’ needs.
Our suppliers are our partners. Without strong, favourable and ongoing partnership with major, and minor airlines we would have not been in a position to create our services and to keep them competitive.
Our Clients are our partners. We are certainly viewed by the majority of our Clients as preferred suppliers, if not even sole suppliers, for their marine travel needs. We carefully chose our Clients ensuring that we only service those to whom we can provide benefits.

Technology

Currently we use both Amadeus and Galileo CRSs, which host more than 600 airlines’ schedules, flights, seats and fares. Additionally, we have developed our in-house systems – both for internal control (management reporting, decision support systems) and for Clients’ benefit (periodic reporting on savings against budgets and/or targets). We offer our clients the advantages of on-line booking and payment by credit cards.

Business Development

We grow our business strategically, gradually and organically. Only when we can ensure that we can maintain our service levels and highest standards throughout without jeopardizing our cost base and margins are prepared to consider expanding our Clients’ portfolio, assuming, as always, that a new Client will benefit from using our services too.