Guidance saves ABTA Members money and helps them stay within the law
2012-12-12 — /travelprnews.com/ — With significant regulatory changes in 2012 to the ATOL scheme of financial protection, affecting the way ABTA Members run their businesses, ABTA has comprehensively updated key guidance documents for Members. Exclusively available to ABTA Members, the updated guidance provides travel companies with all they need to know to comply with the changes in the law, saving them money in legal fees as well as helping avoid the risk of prosecution.
ABTA’s Business Support Manual covers core issues such as how financial protection works; the new wording Members need for their brochures and websites and how to issue correct receipts, confirmations and ATOL Certificates.
The ABTA Code of Conduct has also been updated to make it mandatory for Members to have properly worded agency agreements in place. To make it simple for ABTA Members to ensure they have correctly worded agreements, ABTA has produced a model agency agreement which satisfies all of the requirements of the Civil Aviation Authority. Not having a properly worded agreement in place has potentially very serious implications as members of the public would not be able to claim from the CAA if an ATOL holder failed and they would be referred to their retailer for a refund.
To further help Members comply with the regulatory changes, ABTA has also produced model booking conditions that incorporate a correctly worded statement about financial protection and model agency terms of business.
Simon Bunce, Head of Member and Legal Services, ABTA said: “With the CAA now cracking down on companies that are not following the new ATOL regulations, it is incredibly important that Members get the whole process of incorporating the reforms into their working practices right. If they do not, they could be breaking the law. We are continuing to do all we can to help guide our Members through the changes and if Members follow the guidance in our Business Support Manual as well as using our model agency agreements, booking conditions and agency terms of business, both they and their customers will benefit.”
The ABTA Business Support Manual and model agreements are all available exclusively to ABTA Members on the Members’ section of www.abta.com
For further information
Sean Tipton, Media Relations Manager, tel: 020 3117 0513
Gillian Edwards, Senior Public Relations Manager, 020 3117 0514
Victoria Bacon Head of Communications, tel: 020 3117 0515
Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190 987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel
Notes to editors
ABTA has been at the heart of travel for more than 60 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers – the travelling public – have confidence in their travel experience.
The ABTA brand stands for expertise, reliability and fairness. These qualities are core to us. They ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members.
We help our Members and their customers navigate through today’s changing travel landscape by providing schemes of financial protection and a course of redress if something goes wrong; by raising standards in the industry and by giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety; and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.
ABTA currently has around 1,300 Members and represents over 5,000 retail outlets and offices. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we’re working at the heart of the industry to ensure that we continue to build confidence in travel visit www.abta.com.
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