ACTA reviews finances, initiatives at annual meeting

Consumer awareness, education, and advocacy toward agents were the focal points of ACTA's annual general meeting yesterday, a gathering of members and directors of the association and review of its activities in 2014.

Here are the highlights:​

• President and COO David McCaig provided a summary of ACTA's 2014 net assets, which totalled $51,451 in 2014 (up from $591 in 2013), resulting in a profit.  "ACTA’s deficit from 2008 has now been eliminated,” McCaig told PAX, going on to explain that the revenue from 2014 will be used to establish a reserve fund.

• Matters of professional development continue to be a focus for ACTA, in particular its Marketing Toolkit, launched in April 2014. 

• McCaig stated that ACTA would continue its lobbying and advocacy on behalf of agents, particularly with regards to IATA's new distribution capability, which is being monitored by the association's Competition Bureau, and Carnival Corporation's non-commissionable fares, a former matter that ACTA views as promising. More recently, ACTA is working with IATA to resolve the agency debit memo issue, whereby agents were charged transfer fees after IATA changed their bank. According to ACTA, compensation for the fees is currently being determined with IATA.

• Significance was placed on ACTA's educational focus, such as the Certified Travel Counsellor and Certified Travel Manager programs being made available for agents. McCaig told PAX, "Reception for the certification programs has been strong. Enrollment in the programs has risen to 30 per cent from 2013." 

• Another element of ACTA's educational initiatives is its outreach to post-secondary schools offering travel agent courses, which includes student talks and conferences. According to the president, "our goal is to make sure that schools are not just teaching about tourism in their curriculum, but that students are learning the business side to being a part of our industry as well."

• With regards to agent promotion, McCaig maintained that raising and encouraging consumer awareness would continue to be a priority for the association, with initiatives such as ACTA's consumer website bookwithatravelagent.ca, launched last week.

• On the outlook for the year ahead, McCaig said ACTA is looking forward to continuing to be both a resource and advocate for Canada's travel agents.  

*As for a comment on supplier partnerships following PAX’s conflict of interest article, McCaig was unable to comment.