CATO News
All the latest news, updates and activity from the Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) 

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) in partnership with the Council of Australian Tour Operators (CATO) today revealed an exciting new addition to the travel industry’s ‘night of nights’.

The 2019 AFTA National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA) will launch the inaugural CATO Awards. The Awards will be held as a dedicated segment within the AFTA NTIA Gala Dinner to recognise and reward front line travel consultants across four categories.

The CATO Award categories will be promoted alongside the NTIA categories and be included in the NTIA promotional and judging processes. There will be no voting for any of the CATO categories – all winners will be determined via the same two-step submission and judging process used by AFTA to ethically and fairly determine winners.

Globus, G-Adventures, Intrepid and The Travel Corporation will be the inaugural sponsors of The CATO Awards with the four high profile brands coming together in a group sponsorship, demonstrating the renewed collaborative focus of the land-supply sector.

The four award categories are;

• Consultant of the Year – Group Touring
  
• Consultant of the Year – Adventure
  
• Consultant of the Year – Ski
  
• Consultant of the Year – Independent Travel
  

“AFTA and CATO have been united in service to the travel industry for well over a decade. This union to enhance the NTIA program, call out travel professionals working with CATO members all within the high standard set by NTIA is yet another fantastic celebration of the Australian Travel Industry,” said Jayson Westbury, AFTA Chief Executive.

“CATO’s involvement at NTIA delivers an opportunity for us to highlight the significant value of the land-supply sector to a very engaged trade audience. This is the travel industries night of nights and we look forward to being an integral part of the event,” said Brett Jardine, CATO Managing Director.

The 2019 AFTA National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA) will be held on Saturday 20 July 2019 in the Grand Ballroom at the International Convention Centre, Sydney.

2019 NTIA Key Dates;

• Nominations Open - Monday 21 January 2019
• Category Nomination Submissions due – Friday 15 March 2019 (Selected categories)
• Nominees Announced - Monday 25 March 2019
• Voting Opens - Tuesday 26 March 2019
• Finalists Announced - Monday 20 May 2019
• Ticket Sales – Tuesday 21 May 2019
• Judging Period – Wednesday 12 June to Friday 21 June 2019 (Judged categories only)
• Gala Dinner - Saturday 20 July 2019
  
  

Bunnik Tours energetic CEO, Dennis Bunnik has been formally re-elected as CATO Chairman for a further term at the associations’ Annual General Meeting yesterday. 

Bunnik has been instrumental in overseeing the transition of CATO from a fledgling networking group to a respectable voice for Tour Operators and Wholesalers. 

Supporting the future direction of CATO under the relatively new leadership of Managing Director Brett Jardine, is an Executive Committee made up of a diverse group of suppliers including;

Dennis Bunnik Bunnik Tours (Chairman)
Martin Edwards Bench Africa (Vice-Chairman)
Julie King Julie King & Associates
David Walker ITC Pacific/Sno’n’Ski
Anne-Marie Mitchell GET Educational Tours
Matthew Cameron-Smith Trafalgar Tours
Halina Kubica Greece & Mediterranean Travel
Brett Mitchell (mid-term) Intrepid Travel Group
Liz Anderson Sundowners Overland
Justine Waddington Encounter Travel

CATO founder and long-term General Manager, Peter Baily, received a fitting farewell at Sydney’s Establishment Hotel last night. Guests were treated to a number of humorous stories from Peter’s 50 years in the travel industry. 

AFTA CEO Jayson Westbury praised Baily for his unwavering support of industry deregulation whilst former CATO Chairman, Michael Hay and Rod Eather acknowledged Baily’s unwavering belief in the land supply side of the industry during CATO’s formative years.

The Council of Australian Tour Operators inaugural Crisis Management Forum was a full day forum held in Sydney in March 2016 and attended by over 80 tour operators, wholesalers and travel agents. Attendees heard from a range of crisis management experts including the head of the DFAT crisis response team and the safety managers of Qantas and Sydney Airport.

There was also a panel discussion of members that allowed attendees to learn from first hand experiences of CATO members in dealing with a variety of issues. The panel included Wildlife Safari md Trevor Fernandes, who was in Kenya during several events including post-election violence in 2007 and the Westgate Plaza shootings in 2013.

Key take-outs included the importance of having a crisis management plan and clearly defined roles for key personnel; the importance of having a senior member of the operations team on the ground as soon as possible after an incident; and the importance of relying on contacts on the ground rather than just sensationalised media reports.

From left: David Beirman of UTS; Rose Romeo from the Qantas Group Business Resilience department; CATO chairman Dennis Bunnik; and Kirsty McNeill, DFAT’s director of crisis management and contingency planning.