The Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) applauded the announcement by Royal Caribbean International (RCI) that it will terminate relationships with multi-level marketers (MLMs) which provide travel agency credentials and identity cards to consumers for the purpose of becoming would-be travel agents.

The travel agent MLM/Card Mill industry has proliferated exponentially over the years, allowing consumers to pay a small fee to MLMs to procure questionable travel agency credentials and attempt to portray themselves as legitimate travel sellers - even with little or no professional training, knowledge or protection for consumers. The end result is a growing group of individuals who are not travel agents at all, but rather travel consumers seeking to obtain discounts and benefits.

This announcement by the RCI family of cruise lines is welcome news from a respected supplier to curtail the growth of the MLM/Card Mill business, a scheme which denigrates the stature and role of the legitimate travel retailer. In much the same way as Marriott and other key suppliers have fined-tuned their travel agency recognition programs to filter out consumers posing as travel agents, RCI has taken a major step today to add teeth to its support for the legitimate travel retailer, said Barry Richcreek, ARTA Chairman.

RCI, along with Marriott and other major players in the travel industry, have been participants in focus groups held by ARTA in the development of the Travel Retailer Identification Program (TRIP). TRIP’s goal is to structure requirements for the designation of the Accredited Travel Retailer (ATR), an alternative to the TSI and TIDS programs managed by IATA today and ARC`s newly announced Verified Travel Consultant program. The ATR component of TRIP will become an industry-approved designation for travel agencies that do not chose to participate in airline ticketing through traditional ARC or BSP settlement plans. It includes robust business certification and insurance components, travel education and training requirements, and a point system to qualify for general acceptance into the program.

ARTA held its fourth and last TRIP focus group meeting with key industry suppliers in Las Vegas during TheTradeShow last month, and will announce plans for an industry-wide orientation and launch timetable for the ATR and the TRIP ID Card Program.