The Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) is surveying travel agency and travel wholesaler registrants for feedback on the composition of the TICO board.
ARTA Canada voiced its opinion at the September 2009 TICO AGM that the board was already top-heavy with industry appointments (3 by ACTA, 3 by CATO, 1 by OMCA and 1 by CITC) when the Ministry of Consumer Services received a 5th appointed board seat at the expense of one of the elected board positions.
ARTA has pointed out that despite TICO's and ACTA's insistence that such a removal of an elected board seat was urgently needed to give the Ministry another appointment, the Ministry has, as yet, failed to appoint a fifth member.
ARTA is also calling into question the CATO and CITC board positions stating that the historical reasons for granting founding members ongoing board positions are no longer relevant. Citing CATO as an example, ARTA points out that the association has only 31 tour operator members despite the fact that there are 412 tour operators in the province of Ontario. Of CATO's 31 members: 4 are not TICO registrants; 11 are marketing brands of Thomas Cook which holds 1 TICO registration; 2 are brands of Sunwing and one of the industry's major operators, Air Canada Vacations is not a member. ARTA also raises an issue about CITC's seat stating that CITC is neither a stakeholder nor a TICO registrant.
ARTA Canada states that it supports changes to the TICO board structure with a democratic, fully-elected board of industry representatives or, in the alternative, with minimally-appointed and mostly-elected industry representative seats.
The TICO survey must be completed by 15 January 2010. Ontario travel agencies may access the survey by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y3T9CGQ.
