ADVENTIUM, the owner of online booking platform Website Travel, has now repaid about $6.5 million in withheld payments to 350 Australian tour operators, after an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation into the company.
According to an ACCC update today, Adventium in Apr 2020 announced it would hold back the payments due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting several Queensland-based operators to raise concerns.
ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court noted that in some instances Adventium had withheld the payments for almost a year, “in circumstances where these tour operators had already provided their travel services to consumers and incurred costs”.
“We recognise that Adventium has now made all outstanding payments to affected tour operators, and we took this into account when deciding to conclude our investigation,” Court said this morning.
Adventium has also taken steps to avoid a similar situation occurring in the future by ensuring that all funds obtained from travel agents for payment to tour operators are now held separately to other monies.
The technology provider is owned by travel entrepreneur Andrew Cox, whose Imperium Group also owns operations in Fraser Island and Byron Bay, as well as Outback Tour Services and Adventure Tours Australia which was acquired from Intrepid Travel 18 months ago (TD 20 Dec 2019).
The Imperium portfolio includes Backpackers World Travel, Peterpans Adventure Travel and Freedom Hostels, while Cox also owns and operates several hotels in Queenstown, NZ including the upmarket Spires and Eichhardt’s Private Hotel.
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Source: traveldaily