www.abta.com

ABTA is The Association of British Travel Agents; it is the UK’s Premier Trade Association for Tour Operators and Travel Agents. ABTA’s Tour Operators and Travel Agents are responsible for the sale of 85% of UK holidays that are sold.

They have 6310 Tour Operators and 1052 Travel Agents members; they have a turnover of £26 billion. ABTA help to protect their customers, to protect consumer’s monies and holidays in 2001, ABTA paid out £2.2 million in respect of Travel Agents failures and £90,000 in respect of Tour Operators failures.

They also handle customer complaints in 2003 ABTA dealt with nearly 17,000 complaints. Over 1,200 of these went to ABTA’s independent arbitration scheme that is an alternative to the small claims court.

www.abta.com