I found an interesting column on another blog this morning and I think Peter has some outstanding points. I think that CLIA really needs to take a stand here. I personally know of many traditional agents that are not renewing their membership because of the stance they have NOT made. Some have received some very carefully crafted responses, and many others have not receive ANY response. Personally, I would think that an Association owes it to its members to respond to concerns. Read the entire column at Peter Stilphen's Homebased Travel Agents Blog.
This plan of attack could also apply to the other rodents or critters we refer to as MLMs/card mills. The food supply in the case of the MLM/card mill operations is CLIA. At one time the card mills used their own agency photo ID cards many times appearing similar to the IATAN card in order to try and fool suppliers who accepted these cards into thinking the holder of one of these cards was a real travel agent. As more and more hotels, car rentals, etc. began to see through this charade the card mills were forced to seek other means for touting cheap travel to consumers. They also needed something that would give them more credibility at the same time. The answer was CLIA.So, what do you think?
