THE Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) recorded a surplus of $11,805 for the year ending 31 Mar 2018, according to the federation’s annual report released last week.
The figure represents an increase on last year’s surplus of $9,247 (TD 19 Jun 17).
Total revenue was $2.26m on last year’s $2.42m, with AFTA witnessing a drop in its most significant income stream of membership and accreditation, which it said was due to industry consolidation.
The federation had a total of 2,920 ATAS accredited locations spread throughout Australia as at 31 Mar 2018.
It approved 104 new applications for ATAS accreditation during the period and knocked back 29.
A number of ATAS accreditations were cancelled during the period, five due to a failure to demonstrate that the Business Compliance and Governance criteria were being met.
One ATAS accredited travel agent went into liquidation, which AFTA chief executive Jayson Westbury noted was “very disappointing” and had led to “an even more robust approach to the assessment of the financial status of members”.
During the year, AFTA received 549 complaints, with refunds and cancellations the main topics.
The number of complaints represented a 71% increase on 2016, which AFTA attributed to rising consumer awareness of ATAS and that ATAS Participants “are embracing the ATAS Complaints Escalation process”.
AFTA assisted in returning $18,911 to Australian consumers in 2017 via the ATAS complaints escalation process.
More from Jayson Westbury on page seven.
Source: traveldaily