by Brian Major
Last updated: 4:35 PM ET, Thu August 29, 2024
The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) is driving a
ramped-up effort this year to tackle proposed higher costs for advisors and positively
position the profession among consumers, said Zane Kerby, ASTA’s CEO.
Over the next several weeks, the organization will
introduce a website channel enabling consumers to identify trustworthy member
agencies.
“The barriers to entry in our industry have been far too
low for far too long,” Kerby said this week at ASTA’s Caribbean Showcase
conference at the Sandals Royal Curaçao resort.
“We are re-launching our advisor-consumer connection on asta.org
in a few short weeks,” Kerby said. “One of the most frequent calls we get at
headquarters is from consumers who want to know if [an agency] is a member or
if [the agency] has bad reviews they should know about.”
Kerby said the online link to ASTA agencies is part of an initiative to revamp the organization’s Verified Travel Advisor
(VTA) program.
“Most advisors are great ethical and hardworking, but the
real challenge is that unethical advisors get all the headlines,” he said. “‘Travel
Advisor makes off with couple’s life savings.’ Those stories hurt us all and
sadly you're becoming more frequent.
“To answer this, we’ve recast the VTA program,” said Kerby.
“We want to tell consumers exactly whom to trust and we’re going to do that in
a forceful way.”
Agencies are required to provide “required verifiable sales
levels,” as part of the new VTA program, which consists of “four short but
challenging courses on regulatory compliance, legal relationships and ethics.”
Advisor Advocacy
ASTA has also waged an intensive battle to scuttle government
rules that place severe financial conditions on travel agencies this year, Kerby
said.
“The final Department of Transportation [DOT] rule published
two weeks ago says airlines must refund funds [for clients’ travel impacted by
cancellations or delays] to you ‘promptly’,” he said.
“But it doesn’t specify [issuing refunds] within the seven
days that the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) bill dictates that you do.
So we have some work to do by October 27 and we’re doing it,” Kerby said.
“There's enough ambiguity between the word ‘promptly’ and a
seven-day [period] and we need to fix that.”
Over the next few weeks, said Kerby, ASTA is supporting proposed
legislation that
would specify that travel advisors will provide refunds after the airline has
returned the funds to agencies.
“Our goal is to add dozens of co-sponsors to this bill so we
get some momentum,” he said.
Good Times
ASTA is expanding its efforts as travel advisors enjoy a
flush leisure travel period.
“I'm not worried at all about the business for
travel advisors,” he said. “It's fantastic [and] our members are doing great
business.
“I talked to a woman [who] quit her job as the CEO of an
audiology practice last year when she came to this event,” Kerby said, “‘I'm
done with that, I want this,’” said Kerby.
“She hired her sister, she's doing brisk business, and she
can't wait to hire more and more,” he said. “So there's a great place for
expertise and a hunger for expertise out there that consumers need in order to
make smart decisions with their travel budget.”
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