The Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) has taken the pandemic to reflect on itself and unveiled a litany of changes to make it inclusive of the wider travel industry.
Firstly, AFTA has revealed that it will officially change its name to the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA). The change comes so that ATIA can drive one voice for the travel industry to the government and more accurately reflect who its members are.
ATIA’s CEO Dean Long told Travel Weekly that this decision came around after realising the language used by its members to describe their own business.
“We looked at the 4000 odd names that have come through ATAS since since it’s been created, only 14 of them have the word agent or agency in that space, over 72 per cent of the businesses within the 4000 had the word ‘travel’ in them,” Long said.
“That to me was that moment when – we were reviewing that with the board – there was that crystallisation to say travel agents are absolutely important, we know it’s a high Google searched word, but we need to be presenting the association to external stakeholders, such as governments [and] consumer groups in the same way that our members are presenting themselves to the public and the community.”
Reforms announced so far include a new fairer and more balanced voting structure and new objectives for the Association which reaffirm commitment to all participants and principles of the Australian Travel Accreditation Scheme (ATAS).
An independent ATAS Advisory Committee will be established with representation of the full ATIA membership base to provide independent governance.
Secondly, ATIA has heard over the past few years that people want to have a greater say so ATIA has unveiled three caucuses: one for independent travel agents, one for independent contractors/home-based agents and one for the tour operator and wholesaler segment of ATIA’s membership.
ATIA’s CEO Dean Long told Travel Weekly that they will be known as caucuses and not committees as they are designed without a formal hierarchy or a chair.
He continued to say that this change came after conducting a review where ATIA realised that about 200 of its members are tour operators and wholesalers.
“What that means is that we weren’t even reflecting our existing members with that name and nor were we reflecting the broad based membership and it actually made it a little bit harder when we looked at what happened during COVID and how we had to present ourselves,” he said. “By renaming to the Australian Travel Industry Association, it enables us to represent our current members.”
The Council of Australia Tour Operators (CATO) will be invited into the caucus as Long said he wants it to be a place where the industry can come together.
The third announcement by ATIA is of an individual membership open to all within the travel industry. The $10 per month membership was inspired by the times of need people felt throughout the pandemic and will act as a home for those within the travel industry.
The membership will facilitate the spread of information about what the association is doing on their behalf and give members the opportunity to participate and engage with ATIA. There will also be more virtual and in person events such as micro-engagements through a new product called Travel Exchange, which will prompt engagement from members so that ATIA can co-design itself with its members as it re-presents itself to the public.
“One of the key learnings that I definitely took and I know the board took from COVID was that the general public doesn’t understand the complexities of the systems and the ecosystem in which we operate,” Long said.
“So we need to make sure that we’ve got a body that can educate the public, but also bring the complexities of those systems together in one place to have one voice. If we do that, we can really have that one future moving forward together.”
A travel industry webinar is being held at 6pm AEST. To register use this link here.
