The Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) board of directors, at its meeting last week in Savannah, GA, voted overwhelmingly to appoint Bruce Bishins, CTC to the post of President of the TRIP Corporation. ARTA, which serves as the incorporator and facilitator pro tem of the corporation, until TRIP seats a full, industry-wide board later this year, has moved forward with the incorporation of TRIP as a not-for-profit corporation slated to be based near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan.

TRIP calls for the creation of a joint, industry-managed, non-profit corporation to establish a more effective and useful system of providing recognition and credentials to accredited travel retailers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, including the implementation of a new travel agent ID card. Expansion on a global basis is an option which the TRIP leadership will also consider.

ARTA first announced its support of and involvement in the development of the new industry-wide agency accreditation program in January 2007. During the past year, ARTA formed a TRIP Working Group including ARTA Chairman Barry Richcreek (Richcreek Vacation Center, Harrisburg, PA), ARTA Vice Chairman John Faulds, CTC (Travel Destinations, Scottsdale, AZ), ARTA Executive Director Pat Funk, Nancy Linares, CTC (Holidays 'n Travel, Austin,TX), Gerda Myer, CTC (World Travel Management, Woodland Hills, CA), Sally Watkins, CTC (Century Travel, Austin, TX), and Bishins. The working group met frequently in focus sessions with travel suppliers from all sectors of the industry as well as with agency association representatives.

"Much has happened in our industry regarding card mills, MLMs, and travel agent accreditation since ARTA first announced its plan to nurture an industry-wide initiative to address the challenges associated with recognizing legitimate travel retailers. ARTA took great care in soliciting input, working with stakeholders from all sides of the industry, and crafting the various elements to assure a workable, efficient, and meaningful travel retailer credentials system. After a year of fine-tuning TRIP, we're ready to hand-off a solid program to TRIP's incoming board of directors, and we're extremely proud of ARTA's role in helping build the foundations of TRIP", said Richcreek.

TRIP is comprised of two key components: the Accredited Travel Retailer (ATR) designation, a travel agency accreditation for non-ARC, non-BSP reporting agencies and the TRIP ID Card. Both elements of TRIP are based on the highest standards of travel industry experience, education, business organization, and finance. TRIP will set rigorous, but attainable benchmarks to assure that legitimate sellers of travel are recognized by all sectors of the travel industry and that travel suppliers will be better positioned to allocate marketing resources earmarked for the travel agency community.

"Marriott has long-desired revamping and strengthening the accreditation and credentials system to better identify legitimate travel retailers in a very crowded and oft-blurred travel agency distribution channel. We've looked at TRIP carefully and have given our input. With the right leadership and follow-through, TRIP has the potential of becoming the definitive program to address these issues and bring resolution to our concerns. Bruce is a very capable, knowledgeable, and experienced individual, and we have every confidence he is the right man to take the TRIP initiative forward", said Fred Miller, CTC, Vice President, Travel Industry Relations at Marriott International.

Bishins brings an extensive background of experience to his new position at TRIP, including a wide variety of agency administration and training roles at major airlines, travel agencies, travel distribution companies, agency associations, the Air Traffic Conference (ARC's predecessor), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

TRIP will hold an industry orientation for all stakeholders, travel suppliers, agency groups, and other interested parties in Atlanta, on Tuesday, 20 May 2008. Additional details and registration information will be announced soon.