Speaking at RegionII meeting in St Petersburg, Greig Craft of Associate Member Club the Automobile Association of Vietnam, raised the issue of reciprocal agreements among Clubs as a means of recently established Clubs attracting new membership.

“I think tourism offers great opportunities in our region, and that ties in with reciprocity between Clubs,” he said. “However, I’ve heard very little form other regions and there may be a missing link that we could improve to make sure that there is better communication, not just within Region II, but among all the Regions around the world. I would love to hear some ideas on developing a reciprocity toolkit and what we might do to improve tourism opportunities.”

Agreeing, FIA Senate President and New Zealand Automobile Association CEO Brian Gibbons said: “Greig’s is a new Club that needs to grow membership but needs to build on a foundation and the obvious incentive he can offer is tourism benefits. You can spell out to a potential customer that one of the benefits of becoming a member of AA Vietnam is that if you travel to New Zealand for example, you’ll get free breakdown service and discounts on fuel, but a lot of Clubs don’t know those benefits exist. I think it’s vital for an emerging Club to have this kind of resource. To start off you don’t have some of the sophisticated services large Clubs have, but you do have the ability to tap into the FIA Family and that should be a priority.”

The meeting was informed that a survey of Clubs had been conducted and a reciprocity booklet detailing benefits available around the world to Club members was published but that the edition was now two years old.

The meeting agreed to include the promotion of reciprocity between Clubs in its business plan for 2018-2020, which was also presented in draft form at the meeting, as part of a communication workshop to be held in the Region in 2019, and as part of the development of a knowledge hub within the Region.

The meeting also featured detailed discussion around the funding of overseas programmes delegates from the Region attend, including its regular round table meeting. Delegates agreed to seek sponsorship to defray costs associated with maintaining its programme work but also to explore the option of introducing a registration fee for participation in certain events.

Elsewhere, delegates were also informed on the progress of the FIA’s work on updating IDPs which revealed that the Federation’s promoted model of national licences in association with an updated IDP featuring enhanced security features has found support at UN level and that the FIA is now seeking feedback on the optimal format for an improved, modernised IDP.