KarryOn isn’t the only travel business celebrating a birthday this month. Today marks the official one year anniversary since AFTA’s ATAS replaced the TCF.
Phew, where did 12 months go?
For those new to the industry, here’s what you missed:
On 1 July 2014 last year, the former compulsory travel agent accreditation – The Travel Compensation Fund (TCF) – was phased out in favour of ATAS – the AFTA Travel Accreditation Scheme (ATAS).
Regulating the industry for some 30 years, the TCF required agents to pay hefty annual fees and undergo regular audits. In turn, the Fund offered consumer protection, which ensured Australian travellers would be refunded if an agency collapsed.
The digital age changed the industry.
Then in comes the digital age…
The old Fund was deemed outdated, which led to the establishment of ATAS.
ATAS was designed to meet the needs of the current travel industry and modern Australian travellers – who are researching and booking travel through various outlets.
Aside from a name change, the biggest difference between the two schemes is that while ATAS can assure travellers that the agent they are dealing with is qualified and secure, it does not offer consumers financial refunds in the case of insolvencies.
Initially, the loss of consumer financial protection was met with concern from the industry. Now 12 months later over 3,000 locations have taken up ATAS accreditation – a figure AFTA’s CEO Jayson Westbury is expecting to grow over the next year.
AFTA CEO, Jayson Westbury is confident about the future of ATAS.
Speaking exclusively to KarryOn, Westbury said he’s feeling good about the last year and explained that despite a couple of initial ‘hiccups’ the new scheme is in ‘good shape’.
The ‘hiccups’ he was referring to were the two ATAS accredited agencies that went under during the first half of this year.
The first of the two agencies to go under was backed by a larger group, so all clients were refunded of their holiday money. However, the second was being run independently, which left a few clients out of pocket.
Despite this, Westbury said ATAS worked exactly as it was meant to, particularly during the first case.
“It’s an accredited agent, something went wrong with the business, it entered liquidated but the company it was linked to had an insurance arrangement in place that provided money back.”
Jayson Westbury, AFTA CEO
While he’s confident the incidents didn’t impact ATAS’ reputation, he did see them as an opportunity to potentially adjust the scheme’s application.
He explained that in an upcoming one year review, AFTA could consider tweaking the criteria to ensure the Federation has information on anyone that has control of the business.
“After the CTS Travel case, it became evident to us that we didn’t think to ask ‘are you married to someone that is bankrupt?'”
Jayson Westbury, AFTA CEO
“We may add additional questions around people that have more influence in the business.”
Companies like MTA have created their own mini consumer protection funds.
However, Westbury said he will continue to encourage major agency groups and independent agents to make a decision about a commercial solution.
For larger companies this would mean establishing a mini internal consumer protection fund – an option a number of groups have already taken up including Travel Counsellors, TravelManagers, MTA, Magellan and more.
The commercial solution for independent agencies would be offering their clients an insurance policy that would cover insolvencies.
In the meantime, AFTA is talking to the Australian Government about securing additional funds to extend its education program to consumers.
“The idea is to educate consumers about making sure they’re dealing with an agent that they know and sourcing their own potential insurances or other cover to protect themselves and their money.”
Jayson Westbury, AFTA CEO
Westbury has a positive outlook for the next 12 months, expecting ATAS to go from ‘strength to strength’, with strong renewal rates and sign ups.
