Council of Australian Tour Operators aims to make membership count

Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO), the representative body of the land product side of the Australian travel industry, held its AGM in Sydney last night with 65 members in attendance.

Members including tour operators, wholesalers and national tourism offices discussed the development and launch of 3 year Strategic Plan aimed to make CATO membership count.

This is achieved through strategies and activities in four key areas, including professionalism – increasing business professionalism of CATO members, advocacy – representing the interests of CATO members, risk – minimising the risk of doing business for CATO members, and marketing – building the profile of CATO.

The meeting follows on from the CATO Crisis Management Forum, held in Sydney in March 2016 and attended by over 80 tour operators, wholesalers and travel agents.

Attendees heard from a range of crisis management experts including the head of the DFAT crisis response team and the safety managers of Qantas and Sydney Airport. There was also a panel discussion of members that allowed attendees to learn from first hand experiences of CATO members in dealing with a variety of issues.

Also launched at this event was the CATO Risk, Crisis and Recovery Management Guide. Developed by Dr David Beirman from UTS it provides a full crisis management planning guide for CATO members.

The CATO logo for full members was changed in January to now incorporate each member’s registration number. This change adds credibility to CATO membership and makes it more sought after.

On the back of the updated logo CATO launched an advertising campaign in the trade press specifically aimed at travel agents.

CATO finished the year with a surplus of $1,307 – a turnaround of almost $2,300 from the prior year, with full members (tour operators & wholesalers) increased to 70 members, however Tourism Offices & Associate Members decreased to 25 members.

The meeting yesterday saw the launch of a new website with full mobile functionality and the ability to search by a range of travel criteria is currently being developed and will be launched in September 2016.

CATO Chair Dennis Bunnik said “the past year has been an exciting one for CATO. The new strategic plan and its associated activities have got members engaged and really thinking about what it means to be a CATO member. This is a good thing and I’m looking forward to the year ahead.”

“For CATO the last year has been about building a strong foundation on which to prepare the organisation for the future. We are now starting to see the fruits of this and CATO membership is starting to really mean something. Tour operators are actively wanting to join. Over the coming months this will accelerate further with the launch of the new CATO website and its member profile and search facility which will greatly enhance the profile of the vast range of fantastic travel product our members offer.”

“In this era of self regulation of our industry CATO’s aim for the coming year is to increase the professionalism of its members, represent their interests and minimise the risks of doing business for members and to build the profile and value of being a CATO member.”

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