ACTA Chimes in on Taxes and Fees

ACTA-May6

The issue of taxes and fees has been pushed to the forefront in the industry lately, prompting ACTA to respond, especially to encouraging comments from WestJet Vacations vice-president Tim Croyle who suggests that taxes and fees line are getting out of hand and that operators are placing more and more of the package price into the tax line to be perceived as more attractive to consumers, but ultimately less commissionable to agents.

“This is an encouraging statement coming from a tour operator,” said ACTA president David McCaig. “We applaud Westjet Vacations for recognizing that this is a serious issue that has been getting out of hand for a long time now. The lack of transparency and confusion it creates trying to understand and explain the charges to consumers needs to be considered. We are pleased with the leadership position Westjet Vacations has taken on the issue and we want to acknowledge them for stepping up the effort.”

ACTA’s efforts on the topic of taxes, fees and NCF’s is in the area of lobby and education. ACTA consults with the Canadian Transportation Agency as an industry stakeholder to ensure that regulatory requirements are good for consumers and fair to our members. Recent work with the Agency on the matter of all-inclusive air price advertising saw new regulations passed for scheduled airlines and ACTA continues to push the CTA to extend these rules of transparency with charter airlines and tour operator packages.

“We value our relationship with the CTA and will continue to keep them informed on critical issues in our industry. We are delighted to be a key resource for the Agency on many topics, one of which is taxes and fees,” added McCaig.