ABTOT celebrates its 30th anniversary with an event at the Courthouse Hotel, London
On the 24th May 2023 ABTOT celebrated 30 years of providing bonding solutions to the Travel Industry in style at a reception at the Courthouse Hotel, London, attended by over 100 ABTOT Members, Associates and Partners.
Guests were welcomed with a short film marking ABTOT’s key milestones during the past 30 years ahead of a business session moderated by Chris Photi, WHA, with speakers from ABTOT, t&g, the Department of Business and Trade as well as ATOL. This was followed by a reception in the Courthouse Hotel’s Sky Terrace where guests enjoyed views of London’s skyline amongst friends and business colleagues.
ABTOT was delighted to announce that through their partnership with Trees4Events they calculated and compensated (based on registration data) over 2 tonnes of CO2e through renewal projects and also planted 13 trees.
The evening provided an opportunity for ABTOT to announce and celebrate a significant milestone in its successful journey; ABTOT started operations in 1993 in response to the new Package Travel Regulations (PTRs), recognising a need to provide a straightforward, practical, and economical way for specialist SME travel organisers to comply with the rules.
ABTOT was awarded an ATOL franchise in 2017 enabling it to cover flight and non-flight bookings for approved Members and in the same year started the first of its 3 Merchant Acquiring Schemes, whereby Members enjoy beneficial acquiring rates and a streamlined application process.
In 2019, ABTOT launched the Associate Scheme – strengthening relationships between companies supplying legal, financial and consultancy services to ABTOT and ABTOT Members. ABTOT Associates are specifically chosen for their expertise in providing specialist advice and business solutions catered to the Travel Industry. In 2021, ABTOT took over the management of the Bonded Coach Holiday Scheme from the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) bringing over 90 coach holiday providers Members under ABTOT financial protection.
Since its inception, ABTOT has been committed to provide a personable, straightforward and cost-effective approach to insolvency protection, accepting insurance backed bonds and an easy to manage financial failure insurance from its sister company t&g as well as accepting bank bonds. Today, over 270 Travel Organisers benefit from ABTOT Membership ranging from small independent travel organisers to multinational organisations. Annual turnover per ABTOT Member varies from less than £100k a year to over £200m.
The achievement of this milestone is a testament to the ABTOT team’s experience and in-depth expertise in the travel sector, gained from working with diverse types of travel organisers’ business models for the past 30 years.
Richard Watson, MD ABTOT says:
“We are delighted to be celebrating our 30th anniversary. This achievement is a result of our team’s perseverance in what has at times been a challenging industry to work within, particularly over the past couple of years. This milestone is also testament to our Members’ trust in our work, and our commitment to the Travel Industry”