The Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) has launched an initiative to develop a new travel agency identification and registration program to provide both travel agencies and travel suppliers with clearer and more precise recognition of the dynamic travel agency distribution channel and its participants.

At its board meeting in Chicago in November 2006, ARTA studied interest expressed by travel suppliers that the agency sales environment was becoming so varied and robust that suppliers were finding it difficult to identify new and emerging agency sales channels, as well as being able to cost-effectively reach them with product and service information. In addition, travel suppliers and travel agencies alike are concerned about the growing number of benefit seekers which have plagued the industry for years.

ARTA, recognizing the importance of a more intimate and identifiable relationship between professional travel sellers and travel suppliers, approved a plan at its January 2007 board meeting in San Francisco to reengineer a travel agency identification system which would meet today`s needs and objectives.

The travel agency association-managed program contains two core elements:

• T-Number - a revised numbering plan to provide non-ARC/non-IATA-BSP agencies with a new multi-character agency code number to better reflect the growth and nature of agencies which do not participate in an airline settlement plan, nor directly issue airline tickets on standard industry ticket stock or e-tickets. ARC and IATA-BSP-accredited travel agencies are not affected by the new program. TSI (USA) and TIDS (Canada) agencies will be invited to migrate from the current IATA-managed program.



• TRIP - a new travel agent identification system (Travel Retailer Identification Program) to provide enhanced recognition of the growth of professional sellers of travel beyond the legacy structure of the existing designation and requirements developed by IATA and its member air carriers. All travel agents will be invited to migrate from the IATA/IATAN ID Card program to the TRIP ID system.

Both the T-Number and TRIP programs are earmarked for U.S. and Canadian travel agencies, and ARTA will be seeking support from agency groups and travel suppliers for the creation of a non-profit organization to manage the programs for stakeholders on both sides of the border. If interest develops in the programs outside of North America, the program will be scaleable in order to embrace other countries. Proceeds from the initiative will be reinvested in the travel agency community so as to provide travel retailers with more educational programs and new support services.

ARTA will be meeting with key travel suppliers beginning in February, 2007 to outline the program, and travel agency groups will soon be invited to participate in structuring the non-profit organization to operate the program.

This in an important program and one of the major planks of ARTA`s 2007 strategic plan. It`s time that travel agencies themselves took a more active role in defining and adapting the contours of the travel agency distribution channel. ARC and BSP-participating travel agencies may need to continue meeting airline criteria for accreditation, but the non-ARC/BSP agency community is fast-outpacing airline-accredited agencies, and for this latter, growing group of agencies, airline-imposed criteria are simply no longer relevant nor appropriate. We must do a better job of connecting professional travel sellers with all travel suppliers. This program is a major step in that direction, said ARTA Chairman Barry Richcreek.

The program will also be a priority for the new ARTA Chairman`s Council said Richcreek, under the leadership of former ARTA chair, Nancy Linares.