Yesterday morning, TRAVELHotNews.com reported on Handa Travel’s release, highlighting some of the proposals the Ottawa-based agency aims to make at tomorrow’s TICO Annual General Meeting.
Today, Handa Travel commented on the response received from various members of the agency community. Inder Handa wrote:
“Thank you to all the agencies who have supported us. We received a great response to our open letter. We will represent your voice for change. There seems to be overwhelming support for the amendments to TICO and the compensation fund that we’ve proposed:
We will be voting against reducing travel agent representation on the TICO board of directors.
We will be proposing and supporting the following:
1. Ontario should adopt the Quebec model in which the consumer (user) pays into the compensation fund.
2. Until the Quebec model is adopted, travel agents should elect the majority of the TICO board, we should move towards all members being elected.
3. The TICO AGM should be available to all the members, without the requirement to be present in Toronto on a weekday afternoon.
4. Travel agent commissions should be protected by the compensation fund in the event of a failure.
Last year TICO tried to avoid a vote on the motions brought by registrants, and unfortunately this year it seems they are doing the same. Mike Foster, Vice Chair of TICO (who is also Director Ontario of ACTA) has written to us stating that ‘the rules and requirements that apply to TICO do not allow us to put the content of your letter of September 4th, 2009 to any vote of the membership’.
We respectfully disagree with the position taken by TICO. It is evident that the current structure of the board is not protecting our interests. The will of the membership should always be allowed to voice its opinion and vote on matters of concern. I am at a total loss as to why TICO is working against what are evidently the concerns of the industry at large.
Last year, against the will of TICO, our motions were put to a vote. Again this year we will push forward a vote on the motions that are of concern to the industry. The matters we have raised are of importance to all of us, and together we can ask for and get the changes we want.”
The TICO AGM will take place tomorrow afternoon at the Toronto Congress Centre. For more details, visit the TRAVELHotNews.com Events Calendar.
Source: TRAVELHotNews.com
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