Carnival Australia is hoping to mend fences with the travel industry over direct sell revelations in its Travel Industry Transition Plan submission. THE cruise giant has been meeting this week with key travel agent partners and the Australia Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) to discuss concerns over the Draft’s possible...
Carnival Australia is hoping to
mend fences with the travel
industry over direct sell
revelations in its Travel Industry
Transition Plan submission.
THE cruise giant has been meeting this week
with key travel agent partners and the Australia
Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) to discuss
concerns over the Draft’s possible plans to
abolish the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF).
“As Australia’s largest cruise operator, we are
concerned about the risk to public confidence
in travel agents and the broader tourism
industry if an appropriate compensation
mechanism is not found to replace the TCF,”
said Carnival Australia ceo Ann Sherry.
The Draft plan could see the TCF scrapped,
with consumers potentially relying on the
‘chargeback’ protections available with some
credit cards, the provisions of an industry
accreditation scheme or travel insurance,
should their booking go belly up.
“Simply scrapping the TCF without a suitable
replacement would leave Australian travellers
who book through travel agents with limited
protection,” Sherry said.
“It’s no secret the current TCF arrangement is
onerous for travel agents so it’s timely to sit
down and find a mechanism that addresses
the current challenges and properly balances
consumer risk,” she added.
In its formal submission to the Draft Travel
Industry Transition Plan,now removed from
the Ministerial Committee website, Carnival
highlighted what its now describing as “worst
case scenarios” which demonstrated the
inherent risks if an appropriate compensation
mechanism is not available to travellers.
The Carnival document revealed that out of
over 190,000 bookings last year about one in
five were direct from consumers, and warned
that “without a collective approach to
ensuring the financial stability of agents, we
may find it more attractive to drive direct
sales”.
“The extraordinary growth of the Australian
cruise industry in recent years is a direct
reflection of the work of the travel agent
community who we consider to be partners in
our business,” Sherry said.
The state and federal Ministers are scheduled to
meet to discuss the draft on 07 Dec.
