Luxury Escapes rejoins AFTA

High-end e-commerce travel business Luxury Escapes has rejoined the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) and is now ATAS-accredited.

The online travel company first became ATAS-accredited in 2014, before voluntarily withdrawing from the scheme at the end of June 2018.

Luxury Escapes has more than 3.5 million discerning members globally and is owned by Lux Group Limited, a privately-owned business based in Melbourne founded in 2009 by Jeremy Same and Adam Schwab.

Lux Group has more than 250 team members globally, with major offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Bangalore, Singapore, and London.

There have been some recent changes to Luxury Escapes’ leadership team, with Travel Weekly revealing back in October the quiet departures of CEO Cameron Holland and marketing boss Peita Golden.

AFTA chief executive Darren Rudd said: “Now more than ever, we need unity and a unified front in order to maximise our impact.

“The addition of Luxury Escapes, a significant and influential global platform, to the AFTA and ATAS community, is important and very welcome.”

Schwab said AFTA’s decision to take on more of an active advocacy role in order to shape the sector’s future “is something we fully support at Luxury Escapes and which we want to be part of”.

“We completely back the organisation led by Darren and Tom to achieve the best possible outcomes for our industry, and we will do everything we can to assist AFTA supporting the sector as we recover from the wide-spread effects of the pandemic,” he said.

Luxury Escapes is the second major online travel agency to join the federation since the COVID-19 pandemic, with Webjet gaining ATAS accreditation back in August.

Shelley Beasley, group chief commercial officer at Webjet, also filled the vacant spot on AFTA’s board.

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Adam Schwab afta atas australian federation of travel agents Darren Rudd Jeremy Same Lux Group luxury escapes