ARE YOU AWARE?? Did you know that today, Tuesday 1st July, sees the start of a deregulated travel industry here in Australia? Do you know what this means for the travelling public? Part of my role as your personal travel manager is to keep you up-to-date about all things associated with travel and as your “go to travel expert”, I thought I should let you know about this major change. From 1987 until the 30th of June 2014, the travel industry in Australia has required travel agents to obtain licences in order to operate legally and to be a member of the Travel Compensation Fund in order to provide consumer protection against the insolvency of Australian-based travel agents. In short, there was a level of protection for travel consumers in the event of an Australian travel agent going “belly up”. As of today, the requirement for licencing has been abolished and the Travel Compensation Fund has been dissolved. You should be aware that this has opened the door for all kinds of travel businesses to be started up by all kinds of people (and not necessarily ones with industry experience and expertise, let alone sufficient capital investment and a client trust account operated separately to a travel agents general operational account to provide protection for your money). TravelManagers Australia is part of a trans-Tasman travel agency company responsible for travel sales in excess of $1.2 billion per annum and operates a central fully funded client trust account – separate to the company’s general operational accounts. Further to this, TravelManagers is accredited by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to directly issue tickets on behalf of all major airlines. In granting such accreditation IATA requires financial oversight of TravelManagers and applies a strict due diligence process prior to granting such accreditation and reviews this accreditation and financial standing annually. TravelManagers parent company, House of Travel has been operating since 1987 and employs over 1,350 people across Australia and New Zealand. TravelManagers is a service focused network of over 430 Personal Travel Managers around Australia throughout every state and territory and every one of them is an experienced travel professional with a wealth of knowledge and skills to tailor your travel arrangements to your specific needs. While a “voluntary accreditation scheme”, ATAS, has been created to provide a code of practice for the industry, consumer protection is being left to individual travel businesses to make their own arrangements for and is not mandatory. In the case of TravelManagers all payments I receive are credited to this aforesaid client trust account on receipt enabling the company to promptly remit payment to various operators on your behalf. Please note these changes and choose who you make your travel arrangements with carefully.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 07:04:24 +0000
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