All change for Aussie travel licensing
The way travel agents are licensed and the compensation available to travellers when agents go out of business is set to change this year.
Late in 2012, a majority of State and Territory ministers elected to withdraw from the longstanding national licensing scheme for travel agents and the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF), which oversaw licensed agents' financial affairs and provided financial compensation to consumers in the case that, for example, payments were not passed on to a supplier or if an agent went bankrupt or out of business.
Reasons for the decision included the increase of travellers booking direct with suppliers online, the decreasing cost of travel, the protections afforded by Australian consumer law and the possibility of travellers claiming credit card charge-backs if something goes wrong. Australian agents were also at a disadvantage compared with overseas counterparts because of the cost of regulation, it was argued.
While WA was one of two States which voted against deregulation, preferring to seek efficiencies within the current scheme, the WA Department of Commerce's Consumer Protection division will advocate deregulation in is forthcoming final recommendation to the State Government.
"We put out a position paper for consultation and after really looking at it we felt it would be untenable to sustain any extensive regulatory regime in WA," Consumer Protection director of policy and legislation Penny Lipscombe explained. "It would be anti-competitive on operators here in WA and we couldn't do anything about national organisations that operate in WA but are based elsewhere, so the effect would have been a burden on the smaller, State-based agents and to no great consumer benefit."
Consumer Protection will recommend WA largely follows the national timetable to deregulation, which will see the relevant legislation repealed by July and the TCF winding up by the end of next year (travellers will still be able to claim compensation from the TCF until June 30, 2015). From 2016, travel agents will no longer be licensed by the Government.
Industry body the Australian Federation of Travel Agents is working on a new voluntary Travel Accreditation Scheme which will set standards of good practice for participating agents and is expected to be launched in the second quarter of this year. AFTA is also launching a range of insurance products against supplier and agency failure.
