TravelManagers Lead Way in Consumer Advocacy
TravelManagers continue to show market leading dominance in consumer advocacy by collaborating with one of Australia’s largest privately owned insurance broking companies, Gow-Gates. The result is the creation of a brand new Travel Agent Client Trust Account Fidelity Insurance (TACTAFI) product designed specifically to protect consumers funds while in the hands of a travel intermediary.
Following the introduction of the Australian Travel Accreditation Scheme (ATAS), TravelManagers is the first, and currently the only travel company to commit to TACTAFI and offer its clients true peace of mind around client fund protection.
“We are thrilled and proud to now be the first travel company to provide all of our clients’ the added protection of a brand new and innovative business insurance product that provides a further level of security to support the integrity of protection for our clients’ funds,” says TravelManagers’ Chairman, Barry Mayo.
TravelManagers has been passionately vocal around the need for mandatory consumer protection to form part of ATAS.
“Whilst other travel companies may make broad claims they are offering client surety around the protection of client funds resulting from their own financial failure, TravelManagers has always maintained a clear focus on our clients, by ensuring that all client funds are held in trust in a separate client account,’ says Mayo.
TACTAFI will provide protection for all client monies that are received by TravelManagers in payment for travel services up until the time that those funds are then paid to end travel providers/suppliers.
“This new business insurance product has been created to protect client funds in the unlikely event that they go missing from, or are not paid into the Insured Trust Account as a result of fraudulent or dishonest activity. If funds are ever found to be missing, the insurance policy will simply reimburse the missing funds directly into the Insured Trust Account,’ says Mayo.
Mayo advises there is no opt in/opt out option, all TravelManagers clients will automatically receive this extra protection.
“In addition, through its travel insurance provider, TravelManagers is also able to offer its clients protection against the insolvency of end suppliers such as airlines, hotels and cruise companies, as part of its traditional travel insurance,” he says.
After reviewing the various optional insurance products on offer, Mayo says in TravelManagers’ view the products available were not ideally suited for their specific requirements, in particular due to the existing use of an audited Client Trust Account already in place for TravelManagers clients.
“For this reason TravelManagers entered into discussion with Gow-Gates to explore tailored insurance solutions which could be specifically designed to enhance consumers’ peace of mind as to the security and protection of their funds,” he says.
Fidelity insurance is a commoditised product widely used for other industries, but through further development, refinement and mutual collaboration between TravelManagers and Gow-Gates this new TACTAFI product has been created to specifically address the need to protect funds contained or destined for a client trust account.
“We have worked very hard with the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) to provide a range of optional insurance products to compliment ATAS, and to suit the needs of as many industry participants as possible,” says Chris MacKinnon, Gow-Gates’ Chief Executive Officer.
MacKinnon has welcomed TravelManagers enthusiasm, direct feedback and engagement on this project.
“We are delighted to have been able to collaborate with TravelManagers to create yet another tangible value proposition for travel intermediaries to be able to provide peace of mind to their customers. This new insurance product adds value to both the retail travel industry and to customers by further enhancing the protection of consumer funds that are handled within the trust account environment. We are confident this will be widely accepted by the travel industry at large,” says MacKinnon.
Effective immediately TravelManagers’ clients will now have the peace of mind in knowing that their funds are secured with TravelManagers through their client trust account regime, further enhanced through the insurance protection afforded by this new TACTAFI product.
TravelManagers’ Director of Finance, Grand Campbell will launch this exciting new enhancement to the company’s consumer protection programme that augments the company’s audited client account, to the personal travel managers at their national conference which begins on 15 August in Singapore.
For more information or to speak to someone confidentially about TravelManagers please contact Suzanne Laister on 1800 019 599.
For further information about Travel Agent Client Trust Account Fidelity Insurance, Rebecca Fleming can be contacted at rfleming@gowgates.com.au or (02) 8267 9919.