The Extraordinary General Meeting at which members are to consider the proposed M&A amendments has been scheduled for 19 July, and its meeting notice was sent to all members a couple of days ago. Before that, we had issued three circulars ( C964 , C968 and C973 ) to explain to members the reasons for and rationale behind the amendments. And there will also be an article in the latest issue of The Voice of TIC expounding on the matter. Therefore, I am not going to further explore the matter here.
Of the opinions recently expressed by members on the proposed amendments, there is one kind of opinion which deserves to be discussed here, however. That is, some members believe that the interests of travellers and the interests of members are in conflict, and that the TIC leans towards the former at the expense of the latter.
The TIC is a public body, and has always striven to protect travellers through the regime of self-regulation of travel agents. For more than 10 years, the TIC has kept raising the professionalism of the industry and boosting the business ethics of members in order that we are seen by the public as a reliable industry. The TIC has been doing that because it has a strong belief that traveller trust in travel agents is the cornerstone of overall trade prosperity, which in turn will benefit individual travel agents.
Since 1988 when the TIC was entrusted by the Government with the task of overseeing self-regulation of travel agents, it has been acting as a moderator between travellers and travel agents. When travellers complained to the TIC against travel agents, the TIC is able to resolve the disputes and conflicts for the travel agents concerned because of its credibility in the eyes of the public. It is therefore hoped that members understand that the TIC is not only protecting the interests of travellers, but also the interests of travel agents. These two kinds of interests are similar to two sides of the same coin. I do hope that members do not harbour the thought that protection for traveller interests is equivalent to ignorance of member interests.
Ronnie Ho
29 June 2006