Gina Costa is the commercial director for the car rental company Hertz in the Middle East and Africa. Here, she discusses how recent unrest in some parts of the region has driven business in different directions.
Hertz has had rental locations in the region for years but opened a corporate office only last year. Was the company waiting to come up with the right strategy?
I think so. I was based in Europe previously. From my experiences of travelling to this [Middle East and Africa] region, I realised we needed to be based here. I put together a business case on why we should have our office here and presented it to our senior management team. We see this as the future of growth.
How much has business been affected by unrest in parts of the Middle East and North Africa?
It's interesting because we've seen segments go down but other segments go up. If you're looking at in-bound leisure travel in Bahrain, yes, we've seen a significant drop. We've been making sure we don't have all our eggs in one basket: we have a leisure strategy; leasing strategy; business strategy. We've also been supporting different areas in the region's humanitarian efforts.
How so?
In Tunisia and Egypt, they've needed buses, trucks, 4-wheel drives, and we do have a very strong presence in these countries. Some of our franchisees have big fleets on the ground to be able to help if necessary. When [humanitarian agencies] were looking at moving refugees we asked how we could help. We'll see some of that, over the next 12 months, [affect] how our business needs to be structured to help there as much as possible.
Did Hertz provide the help for free?
No, of course, we still have to cover costs and pay people. I'm not sure about the complexities of the deals that were done, but I'm sure government rates were offered.
How are you trying to grow the business?
We've had a strong leasing business for companies, but rent-a-car has been a really small piece of what we do. In the UAE it's grown in the past few years and across the region. That's one of my keys - to make sure we're growing the rental car piece as well as the leasing.
You recently launched Hertz's expedited gold service in the Emirates and plan to roll out a regional call centre in the third quarter. But what challenges are you running into as the company expands?
A lot of business is still conducted by travel agents because credit-card penetration is still very low in the region. People still like to pay in cash. Being able to facilitate that [is] one of the biggest challenges any company has when implementing a local strategy within the region.
How have you localised services compared with more developed markets?
Most of our countries in the Middle East call for chauffeured drivers. For a lot of people it's the first time to the region and they may request a driver, or it's cheaper than a taxi. We provide a driver.