Agencies boycotting NATAS announce details of travel fair

SINGAPORE — Travel agencies that are boycotting the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore’s (NATAS) travel fair this year have revealed details of their own travel fair — Travel Revolution 2015 — which will showcase more than 50 travel brands.

The three-day-long fair will start on March 27 at Marina Bay Sands and is targeted at holiday goers for the upcoming June holidays. Participating brands include the “big four” travel agencies SA Tours, Chan Brothers Travel, Dynasty Travel and CTC Travel — which spearheaded the boycott, as well as international tourism organisations from countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, and nine major banks including DBS, OCBC, UOB and Standard Chartered.

Last November, 24 agencies announced that they would start their own travel fair — on the same dates as NATAS’s fair — accusing the association of a lack of transparency in the expenditure of proceeds from its twice-yearly fairs. Other issues raised were the high rentals and entrance fees.

Discussions between NATAS and the breakaway agencies failed to lead to a resolution, even after NATAS said it would waive entrance fees this year. NATAS later moved its travel fair dates to March 6 and 8.