The Specialist Travel Association (Aito) has been granted approved body status with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).
The news was announced at the start of Aito’s 2024 conference in Valladolid, Spain.
It marks the end of a two-year process and makes Aito only the third travel industry association to have approved status with the DBT alongside Abta and Abtot.
And while approval has been achieved, there are still some details to be finalised before the service can be rolled out to Aito members.
Once ready, it will mean members can apply for Aito’s financial protection services as their ‘umbrella’ financial protection provider for non-licensable travel.
Non-licensable travel includes the sales of packages that do not have a flight element.
Aito deputy chairman Martin Garland said the association was working hard to ensure the service was available for members to use “as soon as possible” after approval was granted on November 1 this year.
He said: “We are approved but in terms of members applying to have financial protection through Aito there are a couple of technicalities to deal with over the next couple of months.
“We still have some conditions to fulfil but we have been working on this since November 1. The hard work with the DBT and Craig Belsham [assistant director for partnerships and the international consumer team at the DBT] has been done.”
Previously Aito was able to offer non-licensable financial protection via an Aito trust but this stopped around 15 years ago due to insufficient resources, said Garland.
Garland added: “We are resurrecting something that is important to members. They have asked us to provide this in past surveys. Before it was run by members but now we have recruited Christina Brazier [head of industry affairs] and Emma Taylor [head of memberships] to run this.”
The pair were recruited in April this year.