The Association of Travel Agents (ATA) is calling on Abta to consult with members on the European Union’s proposed Package Travel Directive reform.
Central to this consultation should be the issue which divides its members – how to treat concurrent flight and hotel bookings – which should be put to a one-member, one-vote ballot.
The ATA questions the mandate Abta has for its current lobbying position which is to seek to broaden the scope of the Directive such that all holidays, even if booked as separate products and prices, are treated as if they were packages.
A flawed process several years ago, which did not explain the potential consequences and which failed to engage even 1% of Abta’s agent members, provides no legitimate basis for Abta to lobby on behalf of travel agents.
The outcome of Package Travel Directive reform Abta is requesting would not be compatible with the increasingly common travel agent business model, either on the high street or online.
As such, it is perverse that Abta, the association of travel agents, would advocate such a position.
Moreover, it is misleading for Abta to encourage agents to keep on sleepwalking into oblivion with the suggestion that you can somehow be an “agent package organiser”.
That is a dangerous sop without foundation, advocating an ultra-risky business model without precedent.
In contrast, the ATA suggests Europe builds on the Flight-Plus approach in offering uniform holiday protection in respect to repatriation and insolvency but not subverting the natural flow of contractual responsibilities and liabilities.
Flight Plus was recently introduced in the UK in part following lobbying by Abta who previously were strong advocates of this approach.
As good agents we accept liability for our mistakes, for example, in entering in a passenger’s name incorrectly resulting in an expensive correction.
However, we do not accept we should be liable for the contractual performance of travel providers such as airlines or hotels.
This is impractical given many agents facilitate bookings to over 150,000 hotels. It is also irrational and reckless to alleviate the hotel of responsibility to the consumer for their own product.
We believe this is a key issue for all travel agents and we hope more will engage with the debate including calling on Abta for a free membership vote.
Our position is summarised as calling for “protection beyond packages”.
The ATA was formed on October 25 2012 to represent travel agents both online and on the High Street and members include Travel Republic, Alpha Rooms, The Travel Network Group, Barrhead Travel, Hays Travel, Low Cost Holidays, On the Beach and On Holiday Group.