The peak travel organisations of Australia and New Zealand have held a meeting to tackle shared challenges and to reinforce mutual cooperation.
The gathering in Sydney discussed topics such as consumer protection and supplier insolvency, IATA advocacy and the future of the agency model.
The Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA) and the Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) share a large joint membership and have coordinated closely for four decades.
“The relationship between ATIA and TAANZ is built on the understanding that an issue that impacts Australia will most likely impact New Zealand, and an issue that impacts New Zealand will most likely impact Australia,” said Dean Long, ATIA CEO.
“That’s what’s underpinned this relationship for the last 40 years with both organisations identifying where those things overlap and working together to solve those issues for our joint members.”
The bodies discussed how to improve ATIA’s Industry Protection Programme (AIPP) with learnings from TAANZ’s respected and long running bonding program. New Zealand has 30 years of experience running industry bonding and consumer protection schemes.
Officials also discussed what they could learn from each other and agreed to further explore where shared infrastructure could deliver more for members without duplicating the cost.
The focus coming out of the meeting was a concrete program of joint work with the two peak bodies closely aligned and committed to ongoing collaboration.
“There are a huge number of joint members that operate in both markets,” added Mr Long.
“Their expectation of us is that they don’t care about where the country border is. They care about how we come together to solve their issues. That is what this partnership is all about.
“We can complement one another in terms of resources, and where we’ve got joint members, we work together but we acknowledge the nuances that are also needed.”
Main image: Julie White, Chief Executive, TTANZ; Andrew Bowman, board member and Director NZ Travel Brokers, TTANZ; Dean Long, ATIA CEO
