AFTA has confirmed today that high-end online travel player Luxury Escapes has formally rejoined AFTA and has become ATAS accredited again after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.
Luxury Escapes’ owners, Lux Group Limited had previously left AFTA and ATAS voluntarily in July 2018, which at the time included the termination of accreditation for its Luxury Escapes, Scoopon Travel and Bon Voyage Travel brands.
In a statement sent to Karryon in July 2018, Luxury Escapes’ co-founder and CEO, Adam Schwab, said that AFTA and ATAS had been “fantastic organisations for many years”, however, their position in the market has “diminished” and the company could no longer justify paying the “material fee increase”.
However, the door was still left slightly ajar at the time by Luxury Escapes, with Schwab also saying:
“We remain a proud member of IATA and will reconsider our membership of AFTA and ATAS in the future.”
Adam Schwab, Luxury Escapes co-founder & CEO
Fast forward to 2020 and Luxury Escapes now has more than 3.5 million travel-loving members globally and has continued to grow its domestic business in recent months as Australia’s borders have reopened.
Speaking about the reunion, new AFTA CEO Darren Rudd said: “Now more than ever, we need unity and a unified front in order to maximise our impact. The addition of Luxury Escapes, a significant and influential global platform, to the AFTA and ATAS community is important and very welcome.”
The news of Luxury Escapes rejoining AFTA follows on from Webjet controversially taking up AFTA and ATAS accreditation in August and comes in the same week as the desperately needed $128 million government support package for travel agents was announced.
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Speaking about rejoining AFTA, Luxury Escapes Co-Founder and CEO Adam Schwab said: “AFTA’s decision to take on more of an active advocacy role in order to shape our sector’s future is something we fully support at Luxury Escapes and which we want to be part of,
“We completely back the organisation led by Darren and Tom to achieve the best possible outcomes for our industry and we will do everything we can to assist AFTA supporting the sector as we recover from the wide-spread effects of the pandemic.”
Luxury Escapes is owned by Lux Group Limited, a privately-owned business based in Melbourne which was founded in 2009 by Jeremy Same and Adam Schwab.
Lux Group has more than 250 team members globally, with major offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Bangalore, Singapore and London.
Find out more: www.luxuryescapes.com.au
