NATAS waives entrance fees for travel fairs next year

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The National Association of Travel Agents (NATAS) announced on Thursday (Nov 27) that entrance fees would be waived for its travel fairs held next year.

The move is to celebrate the nation’s 50th year of independence, it said.

NATAS said while it had previously announced that entrance fees to both travel fairs would be lowered to S$2 from the original S$4, it decided to do away with the fees after feedback from a few members.

NATAS also said that it has implemented an entrance fee for its travel fairs since 1988 for crowd control, and to provide consumers with a conducive environment to consider their purchase.

After both NATAS fairs have been concluded next year, NATAS will look into doing away with entrance fees for future fairs, it added.

NATAS president Mr Devinder Ohri also said "80 per cent to 90 per cent" of issues brought up by members have been resolved, following a dialogue session for NATAS members on issues related to next year's travel fair.

He added that NATAS booth rental for exhibitors at the fair will be reduced by about 20 per cent, in the hope that the discounts can be passed down to consumers.

The NATAS announcement comes after 24 travel agencies said on Tuesday that they had plans to hold a separate travel fair. The agencies said a sticking point was the entrance fees charged for NATAS' travel fairs, and dropping turnout.

In a statement on Thursday, the 24 agencies said their rival Outbound Travel Fair will still proceed on Mar 27 to 29, 2015.

The agencies said NATAS continued to withhold financial data pertaining to NATAS fairs.

"As we see it, resolution is still far from the 80 per cent that NATAS has cited," the agencies added.