Consumer protection alert

CORPORATE failures and fraudulent business activity are threatening confidence in the travel industry, the head of TravelManagers has warned amid renewed media attention on consumer protections.

The home-based group’s chairman Barry Mayo said today a string of recent events had put consumer protection back in the spotlight, including the case of a Queensland travel agent found guilty of defrauding clients ( TD 12 Jan) and a call by Fairfax Media for a new industry fund to safeguard travellers from corporate collapse.

“There is a real danger to travel agent integrity and consumer confidence with reports of this nature, without consumers and trade having the appropriate knowledge and understanding of what current protection of client funds is being offered,” he said.

Mayo said it was important “to highlight through complete transparency” measures to protect clients’ funds, such as the Travel Agent Client Trust Account Fidelity Insurance (TACTAFI) introduced by TravelManagers in 2014 after the dismantling of the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF).

“This insurance protects our client funds in the unlikely event that they are missing from, or not paid into the Insured Client Trust Account because of fraudulent or dishonest activity,” he said.

“To our knowledge, we are the only travel intermediary in the world to publish details of our Client Trust Account audit reports on its consumer website,” he said of the scheme, which is underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.