New CATO standard T&Cs

THE new set of Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) standard agreements and policies for the land supply sector (TD breaking news) will provide “consistent delivery of best practice” across the industry, according to CATO Managing Director Brett Jardine.

Available exclusively to CATO members under a licence fee arrangement, the new documents include Industry Standard Booking Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), short-form Supplier Agreements & a Privacy Policy, developed with travel law specialists Pointon Partners.

Jardine said CATO had been actively engaging with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and other state-based Fair Trading organisations on behalf of members impacted by COVID-19.

“A real challenge in our lobbying and consultation efforts with regulators and media during the COVID crisis has been the variation across operators’ T&Cs, so consistency of messaging has been difficult,” Jardine said.

Accordingly CATO has undertaken a project to develop the newly released core set of standard documents which are “consistent across the industry, better aligned with obligations under Australian Consumer Law, and will help tour operators and wholesalers mitigate future risk”.

“Once adopted by the majority of CATO members, this will provide consistent delivery of best practice for all concerned, and enable operators to take collective positions if an event like this pandemic ever arose again,” Jardine said.

The new documents are available for roll out to CATO members, with the fees payable “significantly less than having them drafted independently”.