Travel agent action group Target has called for Abta to reduce its membership subscription fees for the next financial year.
The group, Travel Agent Reform Group Engaged Together, has written to Abta chairman Alistair Rowland and chief executive Mark Tanzer in response to what it claims will be a reversal in Abta’s subscriptions to levels last charged in 2019, prior to the Covid pandemic.
Target said it wants Abta to halve its subscriptions again for members, as it did for the 2020-2021 financial year in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
The group, which has attracted almost 1,000 members since launch earlier this month, said 73% of respondents to a poll of Target members backed a call for Abta to introduce cost-cutting measures to reduce overheads.
It added that 20% said they would struggle to afford Abta’s membership fees if kept at the proposed 2019 level. Of Target’s members who were in Abta, only 2% were said to be happy with the latest proposed fees, according to the same poll. Target’s members include Abta and non-Abta members.
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Co-founder Jill Waite said many agents had already taken part-time jobs to supplement their income.
She said: “Members have clearly stated that with no income coming in they cannot afford the subscription fees that Abta is proposing. One agent told us that it would take eleven weeks’ earnings from their part-time job to cover the Abta membership subscriptions.”
Co-founder Graeme Brett said many agents also had loan repayments to make and warned they would not be able to renew their membership unless there was a reduction in subscription fees.
He said: “Those who took the £50,000 Government loan, which was interest free for a year, are now paying up to £833.33 a month repayments.
“Last year [financialy year 2020-2021] Abta reduced its membership fees and that helped members. We are asking for them to repeat the gesture.”
Abta’s financial accounts for the year ending June 30, 2020, said a 50% discount had been approved for subscriptions for the 2020-2021 financial year “in recognition of the extraordinary difficulties faced by members as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic” at a cost of £3.3 million, funded by the association’s reserves.
In the financial statement, it said: “It was anticipated to have the maximum effect in stabilising membership and retention, and to offset some of the cost burden of difficult bond and financial failure insurance renewals for many members.”
Waite said Target’s members had been further angered by other information in Abta’s annual accounts which showed Abta had increased the number of its employees from 94 for the year ending June 30, 2019, to 101 in for the year ending June 30, 2020.
Abta’s total salary bill increased to £6.6 million, with the highest paid director receiving £295,000 plus £26,000 in pension contributions for the same financial year, ending June 2020.
Travel Weekly has approached Abta for comment.