Travel Counsellors South Africa joins ASATA fold

JOHANNESBURG, MARCH 2015 – Home-based travel agency group Travel Counsellors and its 143 agents have this week officially joined the Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) as members.

The group comprises travel professionals who have consultancy experience in the travel industry and supports home-based Travel Counsellors with such services as marketing, training, technology, emergency contact and supplier deals, among others.

Travel Counsellors South Africa General Manager Mladen Lukic says the decision to become ASATA members is the result of the two parties having reached common ground on the group’s model. “We have always supported the value of ASATA and even joined the association in 2007. Our decision to leave ASATA was at the time due to a different points of view of retail travel segmentation.”

Supportive of ASATA’s role to foster compliance within the travel sector, Mladen says Travel Counsellors believes it is more important for businesses to work within the system. “Travel Counsellors have specific views that we want to air and we feel ASATA is the correct platform through which to do this instead of airing our views externally,” he said.

Welcoming Travel Counsellors’ decision to return to the ASATA fold, ASATA CEO Otto De Vries says: “The move serves to strengthen our industry at large and contributes to our efforts to promote the professionalism of the retail travel industry. “The addition of Travel Counsellors’ voice to that of ASATA’s will enhance our efforts to resolve issues that are impacting our industry at present.”