Message from Denise Scrafton, President-Elect International Skål Council


Denise Scrafton

President-Elect Skål International Council 


Meet your new International Skål Council Board-Elect 

I am delighted to introduce your new International Skål Council Board for 2021 and 2022.


I am very humbled to work alongside both Julie Dalaby-Scott and Jean François Cote – they are both such impressive industry professionals. 

The new ISC Board is as follows: 

  • Denise Scrafton: President ISC – Australia

  • Julie Dabaly-Scott: Vice President – Kenya 

  • Jean François Cote: Vice President – Canada

Firstly I would like to thank President Marja Eela-Kaskinen for the enormous amount of work she has done as President of the Council. Marja has often burned the candle at both ends, juggling her own employment duties during a pandemic, commitments to the Executive Board and Presidency of the Council.  

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank every International Skål Councillor for their dedication and commitment to Skål International. Every one of these Councillors volunteer their time and indeed often attend meetings either subsidised by their National Committees or paying from their own pockets. The collective industry success of this group is astonishing, covering the hotel, cruise, travel agent, airline and many more industry sectors. More importantly Skål International gets to access these brains trust on a voluntary basis. 

Over the past 2 weeks, we saw a marathon of Zoom Meetings for Councillors, with a Council Plenary Session, Combined Council and Executive Board Meeting, and of course the Zoom AGA held on the 17th October. Due to global time zones, many of these meetings were held late into the evening or early morning time frames. 

So what do we discuss in these meetings? Obviously, our major concern is how our industry has been crippled globally and how Skål members have been affected. We need to get an understanding of what is not only happening in our membership, but also in all industry sectors. 

Council have several projects moving forward however one of the first reviews we will undertake is the Skål Membership Classifications. One of the biggest effects on Travel over the past decade has been the consolidation of companies, the emergence of OTA’s, social media and digitalisation. It is imperative that Skål International membership classifications reflect the true make-up of the industry – rather than what the industry used to look like! It is also important that we totally understand the changing global distribution systems and how they affect our membership. Skål International must keep abreast of the times, both, current and future trends. 

Please stay safe fellow Skålleagues.


Yours in Skål,


Denise Scrafton

President-Elect Skål International Council