Home-based retail firm TravelManagers has “reluctanctly” accepted the voluntary nature of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents’ new accreditation scheme, but has insisted all members should be required to have travel intermediary insolvency insurance.
The call comes after the November round of transitional workshops and a subsequent meeting with AFTA on December 10.
“TravelManagers views this as the most important issue facing the travel agency community and its supplier partners in 2014,” chairman Barry Mayo said.
“TravelManagers’ position is that by ATAS accredited travel intermediaries holding travel intermediary insolvency insurance as a minimum accreditation requirement, consumers are afforded a similar basic protection from 1 July as currently provided by the TCF.”
Compulsory insurance would provide consumers with “surety and clarity” that their funds are protected when they book with an ATAS accredited travel agent, according to Mayo, That would significantly enhance the scheme’s value proposition and avert any consumer media backlash in the event of a collapse, he continued.
“More importantly it will ensure the consumer is not disadvantaged by the transition from licensing and TCF to ATAS and is therefore no worse off than they are currently.
“It’s TravelManagers’ view that the consumer should not be adversely impacted by the governments’ endorsement of ATAS which will not be the case if AFTA proceeds with ATAS as was presented at the transitional workshops.”
Mayo urged the travel agency community to participate “more actively” in discussion around ATAS “before it is too late”, with less than six months remaining for any amendments to the scheme.
“Consumer confidence in retail travel distribution is critical and without it your business and the perception of the travel agent could change forever,” he said.
