Aito unveils membership option for start-ups

The Specialist Travel Association (Aito) has announced a new option to allow small and medium-sized fledgling tour operators to become members.

 

Aito Aspire is targeted at companies which have not yet traded for two years – the necessary requirement to become full members of Aito – but would like to join the association and benefit from its mentorship and advice.

 

Aito said it had already helped a variety of SMEs to navigate regulatory changes, with the new membership option a way of formalising its support for small specialists or start-ups within the travel industry.

 

Operators most likely to be interested will have a turnover of less than £750,000, according to Aito.

 

They will be able to take advantage of benefits geared to help SMEs such as networking at events with other Aito members, training courses, access to shared business resources and advice.

 

The ultimate aim is for these Aito Aspire companies to become fully-fledged members of Aito, subject to its membership criteria, from their second trading anniversary.

 

The move supports Aito’s strategic plan to expand membership from around 100 to 150 operators by 2026 and become the home of SMEs.

 

Executive director Martyn Sumners said: “We are regularly contacted by recently launched companies seeking to find their way amid the complex plethora of rules and regulations with which travel companies are expected to comply.

 

“We believe that, by nurturing the travel industry’s new generation of specialist travel experts, and ensuring that they understand – and meet – their legal obligations to the holiday-buying public, Aito’s support will ensure that such new businesses understand, and comply with, the often-complex UK travel industry rules and regulations; this will be to the benefit of one and all – but especially, of course, to the consumer.

 

“We are therefore delighted to launch this innovative and hugely useful membership platform.”

 

He added Aito Aspire would be a “safe harbour” in which start-up businesses could “flourish and prosper”.

 

“SMEs have long been the seedbed of new ideas in tour operating, and Aito is the natural home for vibrant start-ups,” he said, noting: “We look forward to welcoming many new companies to Aito Aspire and to helping them to achieve their long-term goals under the supportive Aito framework of wide industry knowledge and know-how, plus genuine friendship and a caring and, above all, a practical, can-do approach.”

 

In December last year Aito announced it had been granted approved body status by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), making it only the third travel industry association to have approved status alongside Abta and Abtot.