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Agents Act 2003
A person who provides a travel agent service must be licensed but this does not include services in relation to travel or accommodation provided by that person. For example, bus companies selling their own tickets or a hotel booking its own rooms do not required to be licensed.
Also a person does not carry on business as a travel agent only because they sell, buy or negotiate for the purchase or sale by someone else of a right to travel on a vehicle if the vehicle is used, or to be used, only to carry passengers to and from the same place on the same day. For example, a day trip to the snow that commences and completes in Canberra.
If a travel agent is licensed elsewhere in Australia and advertises in the A.C.T. they are not required to be licensed as long as the advertisement includes the person's name, their interstate licence number (including which jurisdiction that licence is effective) and only provides information to prospective customers in relation to the business as a travel agent. This exemption does not apply if the person is in the A.C.T. or operates through someone else who is in the A.C.T.
Travel agents may be licensed as a travel agent, or a travel agent acting as an employee of a company. A travel agent acting as an employee does not need to be a financial member of the Travel Compensation Fund and can act under the fund membership of their employer.
A travel agent licence can be held by an individual or corporation.
An individual may hold the licence in their own right and trade under their own name, or under a registered business name. The individual must be a current financial member of the Travel Compensation Fund if they will conduct their own business under the licence.
Partners in a partnership may hold a travel agent licence if the Commissioner for Fair Trading is satisfied that each person (or corporation) in the partnership is eligible and not disqualified. Similarly to an individual licence, the partnership must be a current financial member of the Travel Compensation Fund if it will conduct its own business under the licence.
A corporation may hold a travel agent licence. A corporation must have at least one director who is eligible to hold an individual licence in their own right unless the corporation is a public company as defined by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth) . In that case the directors are not required to be eligible for the licence, but in all cases a premises must have a licensed agent in charge. All directors of the corporation must not be disqualified from holding a licence in the A.C.T.
The qualification for a travel agent is the completion of the unit of competency THTSOP20A from the training package THT30302 Certificate III in Tourism (International Retail Travel Sales). The training must be based on A.C.T. law which means that while training can be undertaken in another jurisdiction, the training provider needs to indicate that the training undertaken is relevant to A.C.T. law. This can be done on the statement of attainment, or can be in the form of a supporting letter.
Alternatively, a travel agent may provide evidence that for at least one of the last five years they have been in full time employment selling tickets or arranging rights of passage for international travel and accommodation, or acted as the person in charge of day to day operations of a licensed travel agent premises.
A person that was eligible for a licence or registration in September 2003 (under the previous Act) is automatically eligible for a licence.
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