Clearing The Air

In the wake of the concern raised by the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies’ (ACTA) announcement of a consortia partnership between Virtuoso and the association, president Wendy Paradis has written to all ACTA members to “clarify some points of confusion.”

ACTA’s boss writes, “First, ACTA is proud to work with all of Canada’s key travel agencies, consortia and host agencies and we are very pleased that Virtuoso will also now be working alongside ACTA in Canada to assist us in continuing to build a strong retail travel industry.”

Paradis states that, “ACTA would like to clarify that we do not promote one travel agency organization over another and we do not have an exclusivity agreement with any one travel agency, chain, consortia or host agency that impedes other travel agency organizations from working with us in a similar capacity. It appears that some content in the Virtuoso press release may have been misinterpreted.”

ACTA’s president adds that, “Working with our members and partners, ACTA provides important education, promotion and networking opportunities to our members to further your success.”

She said that, “In 2018, we did an in depth survey with you, our members and our mandate from membership is clear.”

She continued, “We ADVOCATE on behalf of our travel agency and travel agent members to government, travel suppliers and other key stakeholders. We EDUCATE and elevate travel agents with professional certification and education tools. We CONNECT our members to valuable tools and events that will help the be more successful. And We PROMOTE the tremendous value of the travel agent to consumers.”

And Paradis concluded, “Please know that as your trade association, the ACTA team has and will continue to work on behalf of members in the best interests of travel agencies and travel agents across the country.”