Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Member
s
hip of ABTA
Although it is not
c
ompulsory for a UK travel agent to become a member of ABTA, membership does confer
a range of benefi ts, i
n
cluding:
•
Commercial - use of the ABTA logo, bonding schemes, independent arbitration service, etc.
•
Representation - lobbyin
g
at Westminster and Brussels, plus regular dialogue with other important
interest groups;
•
Member services - an information
b
ureau giving advice to members, legal advisory service, legal seminars,
annual receipt of the ABTA Members' Handbook and ABTA List of Members, monthly issues of
ABTA
News
, regional meetings of the Associatio
n
, annual ABTA Convention, etc.
•
Training - ABTA works with training providers to offer a range of courses for staff and management;
•
Charity - ABTA administers its own benevolen
t
fund for members who need fi nancial assistance.
How ABTA works
The Association is a self-regulatory body run by its members
h
ip. A network of Councils and Committees,
appointed by member travel agents and tour operators, make up the policy-making and enforcing
machinery of the Association and help to ensure that ABTA rema
i
ns in close contact with the whole of its
membership.
Protection and redress for the travelling publi
c
In addition to its Codes of Conduct, ABTA seeks to protect the interests o
f
travellers through its Consumer
Affairs Department and its own Arbitration Scheme. Staff in the Consumer A
f
fairs Department offer a service
for clients who have booked with an ABTA-registered travel agent or tour operator and who have reason to
complain about some aspect of the service they have received. ABTA will look
i
nto the complaint and seek
to redress the situation without recourse to law. If the dispute cannot be resolv
e
d through conciliation, the
client may pursue the claim through ABTA's Arbitration Scheme, for which a fee is charged depending on the
amount of the claim. The ABTA Arbitration Scheme, administered by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators,
gives the client the opportunity for redress without incurring high legal costs.
Tour operator and travel agent members of ABTA are required to provide bonds to prot
e
ct their customers
in the event of fi nancial failure. The bond can take a number of forms, but is often an ins
u
rance policy for
the amount required by ABTA, or a bank guarantee. The fi nancial protection offered by the
b
onding system
enables ABTA, in the event of a member's fi nancial failure, to:
•
Arrange for clients whose holidays are in progress at the time of the failure to continue their holidays, as
far as possible as originally planned, and in any event to make certain that customers abroad are
r
eturned
to the UK;
•
Reimburse customers whose holidays have not started, the money they paid for their holidays or to make
alternative arrangements for the holidays to proceed.
