New Atas operations working group to share best practice

The Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) is creating an Operations Working Group from among its land-based tour operator members.

Claire Brighton, Atas director, said the new group represents the next stage in the development of Atas which aims to bring players in the sector together for the benefit of customers and travel agents.

“We want to continue to develop the Atas offering, so the purpose of this new group is to collaborate, share best practice and learn to continually from each other,” she said.

“This will help to drive the operational excellence of companies in the touring sector and create a better experience for customers.”

The group will initially focus on how to deal with world events which could affect the operational performance of Atas members and look at how to collaborate when responding to such cases.

Furthermore, the group will look at new ways to raise the profile of Atas among travel agent partners and holidaymakers.

Brighton highlighted how the touring and adventure sector differs from other parts of the travel industry, saying: “Touring itineraries involve a lot of moving parts so there are sometimes operational challenges that other operators don’t face.

“Clients can be in remote or mountainous regions, for example, and they move from place to place during their tour, which means dealing with incidents can be more complicated than cases where holidaymakers are in a single hotel in a popular beach location.”

Initially, meetings will take place quarterly but if there is an evolving situation in a certain destination, Atas could convene an emergency session.

“I’m always heartened by the way our members come together under the Atas umbrella to work for the good of the sector – they are all competitors but it’s great to see how they can collaborate, which will benefit us all,” Brighton concluded.