Coastal Dreams Business Solutions

Since my consulting clients coming from YTB have not demonstrated a basic understanding of the need for an IATA/IATAN number, I felt it necessary to shed some light to help these folks who read this BLOG save their failing business.

Unless someone has their head in the sand, the simplest due diligence is going to scare a would be recruit out of the water.  For right now, all you can really do is either ride it out and see if the companies reputation improves.  Here is a really useful source http://www.ytbexposed.com/. 

Before the Airline Deregulations Act of 1981, travel agents had to be a member of either the Air Traffic Conference (ATC) or the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) in order to do business with suppliers. Since the travel industry is an international business, IATA was charged with developing the numbering system so that registered travel agents could each have their own unique IATA number that appeared on every airline ticket they issued and identified them solely.

The Deregulations Act that mandated competition in the airline industry banned IATA from doing business in the and ended the ATC's dominant reign. It also created the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC), a for profit corporation owned by the member airlines to carry on the business activities of both the ATC and IATA.

IATA started a network of agents in the known as the International Airline Travel Agent Network (IATAN) to continue to list travel agents on behalf of the International airlines. The issue of assigning travel agent unique numbers still exists in the and it worked out that both the ARC and IATAN simply arranged for blocks of numbers from IATA to use within the . 

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) is the world’s largest cruise association and is dedicated to the promotion and growth of the cruise industry. CLIA is another association you can join and is composed of a majority of cruise lines serving .  The organization operates pursuant to an agreement filed with the Federal Maritime Commission under the Shipping Act of 1984 and serves as a non-governmental consultative organization to the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations.

CLIA was formed in 1975 in response to a need for an association to promote the special benefits of cruising and in 2006 merged with the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), a sister entity created in 1990 dedicated to participating in the regulatory and policy development process of the cruise industry. CLIA exists to promote all measures that foster a safe, secure, and healthy cruise ship environment, educate, train its travel agent members, and promote and explain the value, desirability, and affordability of the cruise vacation experience.

NACTA (The National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents) is the leading association for home-based travel agents and cruise professionals. The best time to join NACTA is when you have made the decision to go ahead with your home based travel business; however, this is an individual decision for the agent to make.  NACTA offers a wealth of benefits for new agents.  If your host agency does not offer training and support, you will benefit from paying the fees for NACTA membership.

Now mind you these are the basics, and there are many more professional travel associations that provide a standard ID# so that you can be identified.  Do some research, talk to professionals, and really learn and establish your career in the travel industry. 

I keep the Home Based Retail Agent business simple and work with my team closely so that they can “learn while they earn”. And the excuse of “no time” is just that, and excuse.  It can be done by dedicating 10 – 15 hours per week into building your business AND learning the ropes.  But I do expect folks to participate in the provided training program and work with me as their coach to ensure they are maximizing thier earning potential and offering Inteltravel Host Agency clients top customer service.