6ACITA turns one: A look back

ACITA turns one: A look back on its growth and accomplishments

By Cindy Sosroutomo

TORONTO — It’s hard to believe that after forming ACITA a year ago, the three founding members have still not met one another.

Thanks to the global pandemic and lockdown measures, Judith Coates of The Travel Agent Next Door in Orillia, Nancy Wilson of Leisure Life Holiday in Ottawa, and Brenda Slater of Beyond the Beach in Tiny, Ontario have been forced to meet virtually, like everyone else in the travel industry, during these past 15 months. But it’s also through the magic of Zoom that ACITA (Association of Canadian Independent Travel Advisors) has been able to make an indelible impact in such a short amount of time.

June 26 marked a full year since the organization’s very first Zoom meeting with MP Michael Barrett, Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. Since then ACITA has held close to 250 virtual meetings with various MPs as part of its ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of Canada’s 12,000+ Independent Travel Advisors, a huge accomplishment considering Coates, Wilson and Slater had no previous political experience.

“I say it all the time, we’re just three wee chicas who sell travel, that’s what we do,” Slater told Travelweek during an exclusive interview. “So if we can do it seriously and we can mobilize all of these people across the country, anybody can do it. It just takes a lot of one people.” RAPID GROWTH

For ACITA, a chance encounter started it all. In March 2020, Flemming Friisdahl, founder of The Travel Agent Next Door, encouraged Coates to request a meeting with her MP since at that time, Independent Travel Advisors were not being considered for any government funding.

After three months of waiting to see whether the federal government would clue in, Coates finally reached out to Bruce Stanton, MP-Simcoe-North in June and secured a meeting, then invited other Independent Travel Advisors via Facebook to join in. It was during that fateful initial Zoom call where Coates first met Wilson and Slater.

After a post-meeting chat, the three formed an easy alliance and agreed to join forces in their advocacy efforts. ACITA was quickly born and soon enough, they were generating quite a bit of buzz in the industry.

“We asked our travel advisor colleagues and shared the information on other travel agent groups to get the word out. The biggest advantage we had was word of mouth and specifically through the host agencies. When advisors who weren’t constituents joined a call, we invited them to share the information about our group and what we were doing with agents in their host agencies. That really helped spread the word,” said Wilson.

The plan worked. Within six months, ACITA’s membership skyrocketed to 1,000 strong and after a year it now boasts 1,800 members, all Independent Travel Advisors. Salaried agents, agency and business owners and media are all prohibited from joining to ensure the authenticity of the group.

With a growing team, ACITA was able to reach out to MPs across the country more quickly and more efficiently to advocate for financial aid and commission protections. Rumours swirled for months last year of government bailout plans for Canada’s airlines that were contingent on the airlines offering refunds to all passengers whose travel plans were cancelled by COVID-19. Refunds, of course, would mean commission recalls for travel advisors so time was of the essence to connect with as many MPs as possible and bring the plight of travel advisors – both salaried and independent – to the forefront of the conversation.

How did they do this? ACITA provided their members with customizable email templates and talking points that they could, in turn, use during meetings with their MPs. Coates, Wilson and Slater also opened up their own MP meetings to allow members to listen in, which was a huge motivating factor for members to take up their own advocacy efforts.

“By the end of August or September, we were starting to have the same regulars jumping on calls and now ultimately, we have a small crew of people who are helping us,” said Wilson. “As you can well imagine, we’re doing this voluntarily, in addition to our own businesses, and not getting paid for it. It was starting to become a bit hard to manage, with some weeks being 50hour weeks. So it’s great that we had all these people step up and say, ‘how can I help?’”

ACITA's founding members, from top left: Judith Coates, Brenda Slater and Nancy Wilson

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Another upside to having a bigger team is having more people to celebrate accomplishments with, and ACITA had several over the past year. The biggest one is commission protection, first announced by Air Canada on April 12 and then Transat on April 29 following their respective funding agreements with the federal government. By then ACITA had spent several months relaying to MPs how dire it was for Independent Travel Advisors to have their commissions protected so when two of Canada’s major airlines came forward with the news, it was a major victory celebrated by all its members.

“We know that they would never have entertained the idea,” said Slater. “The thing about the politicians is that they didn’t understand how our business works and they didn’t understand the connotations of refunds. They didn’t know that it meant taking back our revenue from 2019 and early 2020 and the airlines weren’t about to tell them.

“ACITA was on it, ACTA was also, it was coming at them from all angles. But where we differed from ACTA was that we were extremely vocal in the House of Commons and busy talking to MPs and getting them to talk about us in the House of Commons, whereas ACTA was coming at them from the back end, from the policymaker point of view.

“So when they use the term ‘Independent Advisors’ in the House of Commons, it’s because we put that in their ears and for no other reason. We don’t always get the pats on the back from our community but we certainly do get them from the House of Commons.”

Another big ‘get’ for ACITA this past year was a virtual sit-down with Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra on March 29. After efforts to meet with his predecessor, former Minister of Transport Marc Garneau, proved unsuccessful, Coates, Wilson and Slater were all “thrilled” when the door opened to have a one-on-one with Minister Alghabra less than two months after he took over the post. Though Wilson says he was “very careful” during the meeting to not make any promises regarding the lifting of travel restrictions and providing financial aid for travel advisors, he at least made them feel heard and, more importantly, valued.

“He made it very clear that he knew about us before the meeting had even happened and that he knew about the issue of commission protection,” says Wilson. “He really reassured us that they understood the critical factor of it all and that it was definitely being addressed as part of ongoing negotiations. And I think our meeting gave him that extra understanding of us to the point where he stood up in the House and mentioned specifically Independent Travel Advisors. We had heard quite a few people speaking in the House by that point but to have somebody of his stature mentioning us made us feel like that was an accomplishment.”

ACITA worked just as hard at securing a seat at the table with FINA, the federal government’s Standing Committee on Finance, before which they appeared as witnesses at one of its Committee meetings to address the issue of commission recalls. It was shortly after that meeting that Air Canada announced it would be issuing refunds to eligible customers and protecting agent commissions. NEXT ON THE AGENDA & AFTER THE PANDEMIC

With several victories already under its belt, ACITA is now looking forward to new issues it can lend its voice to. Next on the agenda is the Ontario Tourism Travel Small Business Support Grant, which according to Coates is leaving Independent Travel Advisors out in the cold. As reported this month by Travelweek, applicants for the grant must have a TICO registration number. But for Independent Travel Advisors, their TICO number belongs to their host agency, which prevents more than one Independent Travel Advisor from the same host agency to apply for the grant.

“There’s a huge flaw there and we think they just didn’t realize that that was going to be a huge roadblock,” says Coates, adding that ACITA was scheduled to meet with the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Tourism Ministry of Ontario, to discuss the issue ahead of the grant’s deadline. “They’re finally listening to us because we’ve done huge email campaigns with them as well.”

Beyond this and the pandemic, what’s next for ACITA? Will it still be around once travel resumes and everything goes back to normal?

Coates says bookings are already picking up for 2022 and 2023 and that the three founding members are trying to determine how to juggle their respective businesses with ongoing advocacy efforts.

“We realize that there’s going to be a tipping point when we’ll have to start pulling back a little from ACITA. But going forward when the pandemic’s over, there are always going to be issues with our Independent Travel Advisors so we definitely plan to stick around.”

Some of these issues, post-pandemic, may include new questions about how commissions are paid out and whether regulation is needed to protect them, should another pandemic occur.

Slater also notes that the travel industry works differently province by province, and that host agencies also have varying rules, commission splits and fees. This begs the question whether there’s a need for more public information to ensure each province and host agency is in line with each other, “to keep everybody honest,” says Slater.

In anticipation of all these issues, Slater adds that the three founders are getting their management team more involved in taking on projects and moderating the group. This ‘passing of the torch,’ so to speak, will help ensure that the work will continue and that Independent Travel Advisors remain part of any conversation going forward in the travel industry. As noted in ACITA’s hashtag, #WeAreNotDoneYet, the group’s influence and impact will continue long after the pandemic.

“The perception has always been the agency was king and that agents were just the little people, with outside agents being an afterthought,” says Slater. “But now almost half, if not more, are independent advisors and we’re really the ones driving the bus on where revenues get spent with which suppliers. Hopefully we’ll be able to maintain some kind of influence in the industry and make it better in the long run.”

ACITA has held close to 250 virtual meetings with various MPs, a huge accomplishment considering Coates, Wilson and Slater had no previous political experience.

Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Edge set sail from Ft. Lauderdale on June 26, becoming the first cruise ship to sail from a U.S. port in more than a year. Captain Kate McCue, the first and still only American female to captain a major cruise ship, set a course for Mexico and the Bahamas on the history-making departure. “It’s not only a huge honour to be the first ship back in the water, leading the industry in the long-awaited return to U.S.-based cruising, it’s also an incredible achievement and testament to the tireless efforts of our shoreside team and onboard crew," said Richard Fain, Chairman of the Royal Caribbean Group, the parent company of Celebrity Cruises.

Windstar Cruises has resumed operations. Carrying fully vaccinated guests and crew onboard, the 148-maximum guest Wind Star, embarked on a seven-day roundtrip voyage to the Greek Isles, visiting Nafplio, Monemvasia, Patmos, Santorini and Mykonos. Windstar plans for the yacht to sail the itinerary on near-weekly dates through October. Windstar is returning to operations in a phased manner, with its fleet of six yachts debuting on various dates through November. In addition to being vaccinated against COVID-19, passengers will be required to follow health and safety precautions such as testing, social distancing and mask wearing

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises It's time for New York City

DESTINATIONS

New York City is going on a promotional blitz, launching its largest-ever global tourism marketing and advertising campaign to promote all that the Big Apple has to offer. The unprecedented US$30 million tourism recovery campaign from NYC & Co., dubbed ‘It’s Time for New York City,’ is being rolled out as restrictions continue to be lifted. The first of three phases launched on June 24. The campaign comes as New York City expects to welcome 36.1 million visitors this year, recapturing more than half of its record 66.6 million visitors in 2019.

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises has become the first North American river cruise line to resume operations in Europe since the start of the pandemic. The newly transformed Super Ship S. S. La Venezia departed on its inaugural sailing from Venice with President & CEO Ellen Bettridge onboard. Uniworld is taking all necessary precautions to ensure passengers are comfortable and has enhanced its already stringent security and sanitation protocols. The protocols include a face scanner to identify guests and take their temperature each time they board the ship, mandatory mask wearing in hallways and public spaces (but not while outside or seated), booth seating in the dining room and no self-service in dining areas, as well as enhanced disinfecting and air filtration systems.

AIRLINES

Air France has become the first airline to test IATA’s new Travel Pass app at Montréal-Trudeau airport. In collaboration with the Biron Health Group, from June 24 through July 15, the airline will operate the trial program on outbound flights from Montreal to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. Air France’s trial is free of charge for customers and offered on a voluntary basis, and open to customers travelling on Air France-operated flights with Paris as a final destination. Eligible passengers will receive a notification a few days before departing for Paris.

TAP Air Portugal has announced the resumption of operations from all nine of its North American gateway cities, including Toronto and Montreal. Next month the airline will ramp up to twice daily service to Lisbon from Newark and daily service from Boston, Toronto and Washington, D.C. Montreal will also return in July, with four weekly flights. These schedules will remain in effect through October.