ACTA plans to leverage the federal election to gain commitments from politicians to support the travel industry’s need for extended financial aid. They’re calling it: Operation Survival: Phase II.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the election over the weekend and scheduled it for 20SEP.
ACTA sees the upcoming campaigns in every federal riding across Canada as a vital opportunity to get the industry’s message across - and extract promises from election hopefuls.
The organization is calling on travel advisors and agency owners to get active in the campaign at their local level.
“Politicians will be looking to their constituents closely during the election period, and ‘grassroots’ communications have a real impact on what they see as election issues.” ACTA
“Now more than ever, ACTA is urging members to engage in grassroots advocacy efforts by meeting with Members of Parliament, all candidates, and other decision-makers to ensure sectoral support for Travel, Tourism and Travel Agent issues becomes an election issue,” said Wendy Paradis, ACTA President.
“This election provides a unique opportunity for us to elevate our message.”
Addressing advisors and agency owners, she added: “In addition to requesting and participating in meetings with your local MP and election candidates, writing articles for local newspapers and repurposing ACTA messages on social media is critically important to this effort.”
On its part, ACTA is working with other travel and tourism associations across Canada. Their combined goal is for the Associations and their Members to have 1,000 meetings per week before the election.
“This means that our sector-- Travel Agencies and Travel Agents-- need to have a combined minimum of 150 meetings between now and election day to do our part. This work is critical in ensuring travel, tourism, and travel agent business survival is an election issue,” said Paradis.
To support travel agency owners and travel agents in executing Operation Survival: Phase II, ACTA is providing two tools to help them succeed:
- Key notes for meetings and a template email/letter to engage politicians and other decision-makers; and
- Launching the Advocacy Meeting Reporting Tool.
The Advocacy Meeting Reporting Tool allows members to report their meetings to ACTA quickly and online, which will keep ACTA informed of all activity and allow them to engage targeted and more effective advocacy work.
ACTA will acknowledge members who use the reporting tool by entering them in a draw to win a $500 Visa gift card.
In addition, ACTA is available to support members to get the message out. Advisors and agency owners are invited to contact Avery Campbell, Advocacy and Industry Relations Specialist for further support: acampbell@acta.ca
ACTA says it will launch additional initiatives as the election ramps up.
Meanwhile, the organization continues to have critical advocacy meetings with the federal and provincial governments and key politicians in addition to leveraging the federal election campaign.
