Abta has been urged to carry out a formal consultation with all members on its annual subscription levels following criticism about this year’s fees.
Chris Photi, head of travel and leisure at industry accountancy firm White Hart Associates, called on Abta to take an “absolutely transparent approach” to projected finances, and suggested focus groups on its services should be extended to a wider questionnaire for all members.
Photi’s call follows a plea by agent action group Target to halve the proposed 2021-22 subscription fees. Abta did so in 2020, resulting in a £3.3 million drop in income.
More: Comment: Abta must rethink its subscription demands
Subscriptions, due from July 1, are calculated on members’ turnover from the previous year but for 2021 are based on 2019.
Photi backed Target’s plea, saying: “They [Abta] should consult members formally and obtain their input on whether Abta should take on board debt, instead of levying the additional increase in subscriptions.”
Target’s members have also called on Abta to cut costs, with many angry at levels of executives’ pay, while co-founders Graeme Brett and Jill Waite warned some members would not be able to pay subscriptions this year due to lack of cashflow and loan repayments.
ATD Travel Services founder Olly Brendon added: “Members would be more sympathetic with Abta if they had taken the unpleasant albeit necessary action members have had to take [such as] redundancy, furlough, debt, salary sacrifice and cutting overheads. This is as much about the principle as the money. The way they [Abta] have behaved is not representative of the members they claim to represent.”
Brendon said his company’s sales in 2019 were six times higher than in 2020 and accused Abta of “ignoring 2020 as if the pandemic didn’t happen.”
But Abta said it understood “the intense pressures” faced by members and insisted that as a trade association it regularly consulted with members about its services and costs.
A spokesman said: “The setting of subscriptions is one of the essential activities of the Abta board. It regularly reviews the services required by members, and closely controls the cost of delivering those services.
“They include paying refunds to members’ customers [so far more than 40,000]; providing bonding and financial protection solutions; promoting the benefits of booking with an Abta member; legal advice; handling of government consultations; lobbying of government; and a widespread member communication programme through webinars and Abta’s website.”
Abta said discretionary spending had been “significantly reduced” in the current and next financial year, and subscriptions had been split into quarterly payments this year to make it easier for members to pay.