Another 20 Singapore based travel agents yesterday announced they will be pulling out of the National Association of Travel Agents (NATAS) fair due to take place in March.
This follows last week’s boycott by ‘the big four’ Singapore agents – Chan Brothers Travel, CTC Travel, Dynasty Travel and SA Tours which between them accounted for 80% of business at last year’s event.
The pull-out stems from disagreements with NATAS over the high entrance fees charged to the public and lack of transparency on how the proceeds were used.
Several agents signed a petition in October outlining their grievances but there was ‘no evident efforts’ by the association to reverse declining sales and fair attendance.
These 24 agencies will set up a rival trade fair – provisionally called the Outbound Travel Fair – to be held at the same time at Marina Bay Sands.
It said it would offer free entrance to the public, compared to S$4.00 charged at the NATAS fair.
NATAS has been organising the biannual Singapore travel event for more than 20 years.
