The Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) recently undertook an independent review of its Travel Accreditation Scheme (ATAS) that is designed to set quality benchmarks for the industry.

Of the 13 recommendations, the AFTA Board is accepting 10, declining 2 and accepting with alteration 1.

The recommendation that was accepted with amendment was in regards to clause 4.2 of the ATAS Code of Conduct terms and conditions.
ATAS recommended that the AFTA board adds a requirement for a mandatory statement on itineraries/quotes. The board agreed with adding this notice on documents, but disagreed with the exact wording that ATAS wrote in its recommendation.

The exact wording is: “We will provide you a Statement as part of all itinerary and quotes that highlights the application of Terms and Conditions of both the Agent and each travel Provider including, but not limited to, the cancellation terms and conditions extending to incorporating information about any applicant refund arrangements”.

The board instead argued that the statement should be more general in nature and that AFTA will provide examples to participants that they can use to embed in their quote/itinerary templates, however agents are also able to edit as they see fit, as long as it meets the below general requirements.

Among those being rejected include the third recommendation, which suggests that AFTA should consider constituting a wholly owned subsidiary company, with a separate board with a broader range of industry and consumer representation, and pass control of the operation of ATAS to that company. If this was adopted, ATAS recommended an advisory committee be appointed to develop the implementation of the new structure and report to the AFTA board which would make the final decision.

The AFTA board rejected this on the basis that further consideration is required, but proposed an alternate approach. The AFTA Board said it will commit to establishing an advisory committee compromising a broad representation of member, industry and consumer representatives.

The aim of this committee is to identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness, and governance of the scheme and ensure ATAS continues to add value to industry and consumers.

Another recommendation being rejected is that the ATAS Complaint Appeal Committee (ACAC), which reviews and determines customer complaints and allegations of non-compliance, be amended so that the chair of the committee has at least five years experience as a lawyer. This was rejected as the AFTA board did not want to limit the position to someone with just this qualification.

The rest of the recommendations were accepted without amendment. Some of these include:

• In the event of any conflict between the operation of non-AFTA membership terms and conditions and the ATAS Charter and Code, the ATAS Charter and Code provisions are to prevail.
• Replace the reference to ‘AFTA’ in the acronym of ATAS (AFTA Travel Accreditation Scheme) with ‘Australian’ so that ATAS it becomes the ‘Australian Travel Accreditation Scheme’.
• Greater resources should be allocated to the promotion of ATAS to the public.
• It is recommended that AFTA, ATAS and ACAC assess the Treasury’s ‘Benchmark for Industry based Customer Dispute Resolution’ and determine what complaint data ATAS releases publicly.
• It is recommended that the ATAS Code be amended to include a provision that participants notify consumers that, while it is not compulsory to do so, there is a free of charge right to appeal an adverse decision to the ACAC, which operates independently of the participant.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) said that recommendations made following the review are welcome but do not go far enough to sufficiently protect consumers.

“We welcome the improvements recommended by the independent review that will help to protect consumers and provide more transparency in relation to fees, refunds and credits,” said Victoria Roy, travel lawyer and spokesperson for the ALA.

“However, many of the recommendations miss the opportunity to truly protect consumers and ensure they fully understand their rights.

“We welcome the improvement in the Code of Conduct requiring separate client accounts to be held, annual financial statements to be filed, and financial statements to be prepared by an accountant. However, it is disappointing that the AFTA Board has not determined whether these rules will apply to sole traders who, without the accountability of colleagues, are arguably at greatest risk of mixing client and business money.

“The measure also does not go far enough to protect consumers from misappropriation of client funds. Trust accounts requiring independent auditing and penalties for misappropriation would best protect consumers. Given ongoing media stories about misappropriation of consumer funds, it’s disappointing the opportunity has not been taken to reintroduce them.”

Misunderstandings and limited awareness of the terms and conditions of travel bookings was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when many consumers experienced considerable distress and frustration when cancelling travel bookings.

“We welcome the recommendation which will see agent’s terms and conditions provided to consumers upfront but the supplier’s terms and conditions, and the role of other parties in the transaction have a significant effect on a consumer’s rights and this information should be provided to consumers in full,” Roy said.

“A generic statement that supplier terms and conditions will apply without providing copies or access to them is insufficient. Most travel supplier terms and conditions are available online. It is not onerous to provide a consumer with a link to the relevant terms and conditions prior to entering the contract. Whether the consumer has the time or inclination to read them is a decision for the consumer, not the travel agent.”

The AFTA Board has also agreed to additional changes to improve the operational efficiency of the Scheme which are outlined in its report.

AFTA kicked off a 5-week webinar series yesterday going over changes to the charter and code which they can attend at the AFTA website.