Organisations & Operators,

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has launched a consultation on ATOL.
The government body said the project will consider evolving the regulatory framework to improve financial resilience.
At present, some ATOL protected travel businesses use their customers’ advance payments for their holidays to fund their own operations, before the customers have had their holidays.
This is a long-standing practice in the industry, but in some cases it may fail to incentivise sufficiently robust financing arrangements.
The proposed changes will look at new approaches that would reduce the risk posed to consumers should any individual travel business cease to trade, the CAA said.ADVERTISEMENTThe Covid-19 pandemic has also further highlighted how challenging it was for some businesses to pay customers the refunds to which they were entitled.
Paul Smith, director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “The ATOL scheme exists to protect consumers, and it is therefore right that we work to continually strengthen its financial resilience.
“Following several large ATOL failures in recent years, we have become concerned about the impact of businesses using consumers’ money as a source of funding working capital.
“That’s why we are seeking people’s views on changing these arrangements to further enhance ATOL protection of customers’ money.”
The consultation will close on July 30th and the UK Civil Aviation Authority will then consider recommendations ahead of launching a second consultation making specific proposals in early 2022.
“The travel industry can be reassured that we understand the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their finances.
“We will take full account of the need to allow industry to adjust to any new arrangements that will be implemented following the overall consultation process,” concluded Smith.

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The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has confirmed the appointment of Liz Ortiguera to the role of chief executive.
She will take up the role on May 17th, succeeding Mario Hardy.
PATA chair, Soon-Hwa Wong, said: “We are delighted to welcome Liz to the PATA family, especially as she will be the first Asian American female chief executive in PATA’s 70-year history.
“Her extensive leadership experience across different industries in the Asia Pacific region is what PATA needs to lead the Association to new heights.
“The executive board looks forward to working closely with her as we rebuild a more resilient, responsible, sustainable and stronger travel and tourism industry.”ADVERTISEMENTOrtiguera is a senior executive with over 25 years of global experience and expertise in general management, marketing, business development and partner network management. 
She is passionate about innovation, business transformation and community building. 
She has experience in working at both multinational corporations including American Express and Merck and start-up environments in software as a service (SaaS), e-commerce and ed-tech. 
For ten years she was the general manager for Amex’s Travel Partner Network in Asia-Pacific, managing partnerships with top travel management companies, MICE and leisure agencies in the region. 
Commenting on her new appointment, Ortiguera said: “I am honoured to be selected as the next PATA chief executive.
“I am confident that PATA, with its diverse member base of industry leaders, will continue to help catalyse our industry’s recovery and growth. 
“From crisis comes innovation and from community comes strength.
“PATA is even more critical as a business community today to support new partnerships, innovation, and the adoption of sustainable business practices.”

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Travel management platform CWT has appointed Michelle McKinney Frymire to the role of chief executive.
She will take up the position at the start of May.
Incumbent, Kurt Ekert, will be stepping down and will take on the role of senior advisor to the company.
Frymire joined CWT in 2019 and has over 20 years’ travel industry experience.
Her leadership has spanned a broad range of functions with notable leadership roles as the chief financial officer at Starwood Vacation Ownership and Delta Technology (a division of Delta Air Lines). ADVERTISEMENT“I am delighted to welcome Michelle to the role of leading our company into the next phase of our development, building on the successes of recent years, and continuing to push us into achieving our true potential,” said Rick Gage, chair of CWT parent company, CTII Holdings.
“Following a strong and dynamic performance in her most immediate role as president, strategy & transformation and chief financial officer, her leadership skills will be key to our future accomplishments and continued development.
“As a natural development in our succession planning, I am also pleased that Kurt will remain an advisor to CWT, and I thank him for his leadership and impact.”

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American Express Global Business Travel has appointed Nora Lovell Marchant to the role of vice president of global sustainability.
The role was created to drive and coordinate enterprise-wide green initiatives and enable the company to achieve targets set out in its sustainability strategy.
These include establishing American Express Global Business Travel as the leading marketplace for green business travel, attaining carbon neutrality by 2025 and working with clients and partners to drive aviation towards net zero carbon by 2050.ADVERTISEMENTSi-Yeon Kim, American Express Global Business Travel chief risk and compliance officer, said: “Nora has been central to embedding the foundation of sustainability at American Express Global Business Travel and helping drive the wider environmental, social and governance agenda across the organisation.
“Nora’s appointment underlines GBT’s determination to lead the global business travel industry to a greener future.”
Previously, Lovell Marchant was American Express Global Business Travel’s director of global regulatory compliance.
Here, she developed the sustainability strategy, including the establishment of green targets and the creation of a sustainability value proposition.

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The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have announced a Destination Tracker in preparation for the restart of international travel.
It is the result of both organisations joining efforts to boost confidence and accelerate recovery of the tourism sector when borders reopen.
The UNWTO-IATA Destination Tracker is a new free online tool for governments to provide information on Covid-19 requirements for travel and the measures in place at the destination.
The tool is available through the websites of both organizations and will provide information on:

Covid-19 Indicators including infection rates, positivity rates, and vaccination roll out by destination/country.
Air Travel Regulations, including test and quarantine requirements, provided by IATA’s Timatic solution.
Destination Measures, including general health and safety requirements such as use of masks, transit through a country, curfew, or regulations related to restaurants and attractions, provided by national tourism organisations. 

The Destination Tracker will fulfil a key need by providing clarity on Covid-19 measures affecting tourism.
The situation for travellers is complex with UNWTO data showing that one in three destinations remains closed to tourists.
Moreover, restrictions and in-country measures are continuously being revised. ADVERTISEMENTUNWTO secretary general, Zurab Pololikashvili, said: “UNWTO is pleased to reinforce its partnership with IATA, a UNWTO Affiliate Member, to provide this important tool.
“Travelers and companies will be able to check requirements in place for air travel, as well as what measures will be in place at the visited destination.
“We trust this tool is also critical for governments to track existing travel restrictions and support the safe restart of our sector.”
The UNWTO-IATA Destination Tracker builds on the existing partnership between the two parties.
In October, UNWTO and IATA signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to restore confidence in international air travel.
The agreement will also see the two agencies partner to foster innovation to drive the restart of tourism, promote greater public-private collaboration in the field of aviation and the tourism sector in general, and advance progress already made towards achieving greater sustainability and resilience.

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Viator and global digital travel platform Booking.com have today announced a new global partnership to showcase thousands of high-quality attractions, tours and activities. 
Viator is a TripAdvisor company and leader in experiences with a marketplace of nearly 400,000 tours and activities around the world.
The integration with Booking.com will begin with key destinations in North America and Europe, with additional locations and inventory to follow over the coming months.
“Experiences are the most memorable part of any trip, and we’re delighted to bring more tour and activity options to Booking.com’s travellers, particularly as travel returns,” said Sarah Dines, vice president of business development at Viator.
“Bringing our experiences inventory to Booking.com’s massive audience of travellers is an exciting integration for travellers and tour operators alike.” ADVERTISEMENTThis integration marks the first time Viator and Booking.com have partnered on experiences, and will bring added value and increased choice to Booking.com’s customers as well as Viator’s global community of tour operators and providers.
Bryan Batista, senior vice president, trips division, Booking.com, commented: “As people start to think about traveling again, we are pleased to be teaming up with Viator, to provide our customers with an expanded choice of relevant tours, attractions and activities in key destinations around the world.
“This collaboration further underlines our ambition and commitment to create a seamless end-to-end experience across the entire travel journey.
“We’ll continue to innovate and focus on making it easier for travellers to experience the very best a destination has to offer, ready in time for when we can all travel more freely and widely again.”
To browse the growing variety of great things to do around the world as travel and destinations start to open up again, travellers can visit the Attractions tab on Booking.com.

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The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) has expressed its frustration at comments made by the first minister on television which indicated that there is still no
Scottish government appetite for, or commitment to, the opening up of international travel. 
First minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said progress in tackling coronavirus in the UK must not be put in jeopardy with “too lax a position on international travel”.
She added that she was continuing to push the UK government to take a tougher approach on opening up overseas travel, adding that travel brought a risk of importing new strains of the virus into the UK.
In response, Joanne Dooey, president of the SPAA, said: “We understand that our nations’ health is paramount, yet there are options which are, and should be available, now for international travel such as pre and post travel testing, vaccination certificates and the traffic light system which will mitigate risk.
“We have been working with the Scottish Aviation Group and Scottish government to build a route map to open up travel but comments like this make us wonder if these groups are just paying lip service – publicly supporting the restart of travel whilst actually taking no action to advance it.”
Dooey added: “It’s disappointing to hear such negativity about international travel once again – and no proactive approach to how we can start travel moving again.
“The first minister talks about last year but last summer there were no vaccinations and we had neither the levels of testing nor the ability to undertake genomic sequencing which we now have to trace variants.
“Restarting international travel will be crucial to kickstarting Scotland’s economy, yet business and leisure travellers are being given no inkling about when and how this will be accomplished for Scots.”ADVERTISEMENTThe Westminster government has provisionally set a date for May 17th for international travel to restart, with the introduction of a traffic light system to mitigate risk.
However, authorities in Scotland appear to be moving away from something similar.
Dooey continued: “Until today our sector had been working on the basis that at least some international travel could potentially restart from May 17th, or a date close to that, on a four nations approach.
“What is likely without a four nations’ approach this summer is that those who want to travel and who can afford to, will travel to English airports at the expense of the Scottish economy.
“Airport, airlines and travel companies cannot remain mothballed with the expectation that they will be able to reopen as they were previously at some undetermined date in the future.
“We will lose jobs and importantly our connectivity to the rest of the world.
“The collapse of our industry is being fast tracked.”

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The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched new guidelines for inclusion and accessibility in the sector.
The work focuses on the experience of travellers with disabilities and is designed to help make the tourism industry a more inclusive space.
The guidelines were compiled on the basis of insights and frameworks developed by private sector leaders in tourism, travel and disability experts and research from intergovernmental organisations.
The guidelines are divided into four pillars:

Developing an inclusive and accessible system
Creating safe spaces
Designing an engaging relevant system
Exemplifying inclusion and accessibility

Highlights from these important guidelines include providing training to staff on disability awareness and how to support travellers with disabilities, as well as collaborating with other businesses in areas where there are gaps in accessibility knowledge, experience and services.
The report also emphasises the importance of fostering a respectful environment at all locations and for all activities, specifically reminding staff that their attitude towards people with disabilities plays an integral role in making that customer feel welcome and included.
There is also an importance given to developing accessibility features that are clear, overt, and which such travellers do not require special assistance from staff to use.
Furthermore, the guidelines make clear that businesses should regularly and proactively engage travellers with disabilities in the creation of accessible products and services so that these meet their needs appropriately. ADVERTISEMENTThey should also include accessibility features from the booking process, enabling travellers with disabilities to engage with the business before booking their travel service or product.
Staff should also be empowered to address customer concerns as they occur or to engage other staff members if and where necessary, and inclusive marketing should be developed to dignify representations of all people and authentically represent them.
Gloria Guevara, chief executive of the WTTC, said: “WTTC is proud to release these important high-level guidelines, which will help tourism businesses of all kinds, foster more accessible and inclusive environments.
“The sector is one of the most diverse in the world.
“As the report shows and according to the World Health Organisation, almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life, and about 15 per cent of the global population live with some form of disability.
“It is therefore imperative that we are inclusive.”
Image: Jürgen Fälchle / Alamy Stock Photo

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