Travel Agent accreditation has been a hot industry debate over the last twelve months, but now the controversial conversation has reached consumers.
Rogue travel agents and the industry’s regulation made national TV last night, during a special ‘Travel Agents from hell’ segment on ‘A Current Affair’.
The unfortunate segment, which aired to close to a million Channel Nine viewers*, comes after the collapse of four agencies in Melbourne, Queensland and Rockhampton this year.
AFTA CEO Jayson Westbury on ‘A Current Affair’ last night
During the six minutes and 12 second segment, viewers heard personal accounts from disgruntled customers of ‘stolen’ money and holidays as well as a potential shortage of regulation in the industry.
While families that claim to have lost thousands directed the blame towards their travel agents, it was reporter Alicia Muling that hinted their situation may be a result of ‘little industry regulation’.
“Unfortunately, the industry has little regulation and cases like this are happening right across Australia.”
Alicia Muling, A Current Affair reporter
ATAS, the current accreditation scheme managing the industry was not referenced throughout the clip but Muling did suggest that travel is operating under a ‘lack of regulation’.
She continued, saying the recent collapse of the four agencies has resulted in ‘calls for a complete overhaul of the industry’.
This view is supported by TravelManagers, who have been vocal about establishing a more consumer protective scheme since the demise of the TCF (Travel Compensation Fund) was announced in 2012.
Late last month, the home-based agency group urged the industry to review ATAS and establish a ‘meaningful membership criteria and provide the community with effective consumer compensation’.
“It is possible that CTS Travel an agency who went under last month would also have failed under the TCF but most importantly its customers would not have been out-of-pocket.”
TravelManagers
“The travel agent community’s integrity would not be under threat and it would have been subject to more rigorous financial oversight resulting in some form of bank guarantee or insurance bond to help preserve TCF members’ funds used to cover consumer losses.
“This in turn would have negated negative media coverage of the travel agent industry which affects each and every travel agency owner in Australia.” Read on
During the segment, Channel Nine interviewed The Australian Federation of Travel Agents’ (AFTA) CEO, Jayson Westbury in his office in Sydney.
Westbury said AFTA is taking steps to keep “bad offenders” out of the industry.
“From where AFTA sits we are aware of those names and we have taken some steps so when we do broader searches on names we can establish whether people are previously bad offenders or potentially bankrupt.”
Jayson Westbury, AFTA CEO
“People like the Stoodleys [owners of CTS Travel, which collapsed last month – read on] aren’t welcome in the travel industry.”
The full show segment can be watched here.
AFTA declined to comment further when we contacted them.
