THE CIVIL Aviation Authority has began consultation on proposals to replenish the Air Travel Trust Fund and reform ATOL bonding through the introduction of a £1 ‘Consumer Protection Charge’.

This follows on from the CAA’s successful appeal against a High Court ruling last month that appeared to settle the controversial issue of dynamic packaging and financial protection.

Under CAA’s proposals, ATOL holders would collect the £1 per passenger charge when booking only, to help build up a £250m fund to enable the removal of bonding.

A consultation document outlines the CAA’s views on the potential reduction together with principal issues associated with such a reform and how these issues could be tackled.

A consultation document outlines the CAA’s views on the potential reduction together with principal issues associated with such a reform and how these issues could be tackled.

CAA consumer protection group director Richard Jackson says: "If bonding is removed, there is considerable scope to simplify ATOL but at the same time it is vital that we ensure there are sufficient safeguards in place to prevent any disproportionate increase in the costs of failure, which will be met by the new fund.”

The CAA is distributing its paper to the travel industry and to other interested parties, and is asking for responses by 19 May.

A copy of the consultation document can be obtained from the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk.

OPERATORS looking at further horizons in marketing their products could benefit from VisitBritain’s International Market Profile publication. It lists a huge amount of information on numerous countries around the world and includes information on demographics, population, market intelligence and statistics.

The publication is a mighty tome and may be too much for some operators, it could be very useful for any business looking at developing incoming business.

The book costs £195 from VisitBritain but individual country profiles can be accessed through the website - www.visitbritain.com/research - as pdf files that are free to download. Operators involved in the incoming market, even as a third party supplier, will find plenty of information on trends in the market place to help in forward planning.

www.visitbritain.com

NEW DATA from a study on travel patterns in Germany, shows the market share of coach tour travel has increased in 2005 by 0.5 per cent compared with figures for 2004.

According to the IFO Institute in Munich, coaches offering a higher comfort class are amongst those which have increased their market share.

The advantages offered by the coach, namely door-to-door service and all inclusive offers, are seen as reasons for positive trends to continue throughout 2006. With patronage figures increasing, coach registrations in 2005 were slighlty down from the previous year to 5400 vehicles (including bus registrations).

www.iru.org