ABTAshould drop its role as a regulator for the industry and use its power to lobby the Government on travel issues, ex-ABTApresident John Dunscombe told delegates at the Advantage conference in Portugal.
Dunscombe believes regulation should be carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority instead, while the association concentrates on talking to the Government about what affects agents.
He said: “ABTA has had its eye off the ball on a number of matters. It did not input into the vertical integration issue and with Air Passenger Duty it was too late. And as for the Passenger Service Charge, we used to have a relationship with the national carriers that may not have prevented it but we would have known what was going on.”
But ABTApresident Steven Freudmann disagreed with the idea of the CAAregulating the industry. “If the CAA makes a decision, I can’t do anything about it. If ABTA makes it, it can be changed. Self-regulation is far better and the best thing we have so we should not let it go,” he said.
During a debate about ABTA, Freudmann also said there were moves to base subscription on turnover rather than the number of shops, ridding itself of the anomaly that allows multi-million pound making call centres to pay the same as one-man-band agents.