Assistance in the Balkans

You joined TBS Team 24 over 27 years ago. Why did an assistance company appeal to you at that time?

I got the opportunity to buy shares of TBS Team 24 just four years after the company had been founded. The foundation of the company was not the initial idea of our founders. In principal, the initial idea was to run a commercial vehicle and coach assistance business. Since the year 2000 we have slowly shifted the business model into travel and roadside assistance.

How do you feel the industry has changed since you founded the company?

Travel, and all the other assistance branches, are under constant change. Changes in the travel assistance industry are largely dependent on tourism development, which again is impacted by the general macroeconomic situation in the world. What we have experienced most since early 2000 was the shift from more local (continental) into the global (inter-continental) travel behaviour of travellers. Amongst those there was also a major increase in travellers from the eastern hemisphere to the west, and vice-versa. It gave us an enormous opportunity to enlarge our network of providers on a global scale. Since the beginning, Voyageur Group, ITIJ, and the ITIC conferences have been the most supportive platform for those endeavours.

You are based in Slovenia – how well does this location work for TBS Team 24?

Slovenia is, first of all, a very nice place to live. It’s situated in the heart of Europe and on the cultural crossroads between many different cultures and languages. It is our privilege to be situated in Slovenia and to be able to support a variety of different corporate clients from many different locations. It is a benefit to be an expert on the Balkans, covering multiple countries with equally good performances (beside Slovenia, we also cover Croatia, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia) but also to be able to offer the local corporates worldwide coverage.

Changes in the travel
assistance industry are
largely dependent on
tourism development

You work with over 1,300 technical and medical providers. How do you choose the partners you work with and why are these relationships so vital?

More than just the sheer number of providers, we are now really focussed on having the best possible providers. The number of our med and tech providers is changing and it is quite a challenge to choose the best from the vast number of providers around the world. The easiest way to pick the best is to see and experience the level of quality, and to try to meet them in person. By doing so, some long-lasting cooperations emerge. This guarantees our clients the best possible assistance experience no matter where they may find themselves.

What makes you stand out from the crowd?

As the General Manager and Co-Owner of our company, I’m trying to share the founder’s spirit with our employees every day. I think that the major differentiation point is the fact that our clients can enjoy the benefits of a privately run boutique assistance company with the power of a global assistance enterprise. As well as that, we as a team are very innovative and digital, which makes our clients have a lot of fun working with TBS Team 24.

Edvard Hojnik

CEO, TBS Team 24

Edvard Hojnik is CEO at TBS Team 24, headquartered in Maribor, Slovenia, and has over 27 years of extensive experience in assistance services. With a passion for people and developing solutions, he continuously brings assistance services to the highest level and maintains TBS Team 24 as a premium assistance company in the Balkans.