kabarsula ATIA chair urges industry to attend Beyond Borders 2026 bandar SLOT INDONESIA

ATIA chair Christian Hunter has urged the Australian travel industry to attend Beyond Borders 2026, saying “you can’t afford to miss it”.

The event will be held on Friday, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. ATIA says it is the only forum to bring multiple ATIA directors together with the ACCC, DFAT, the Aviation Ombuds, Austrade and industry experts in one room.

Hunter singled out the ACCC session, which will update delegates on competition, capacity and what’s next for Australian aviation.

“The one I’d point you to above all is the session with ACCC,” he said. “This is the regulator itself, explaining how it sees the forces that shape your business and your customers’ experience, not us interpreting it for you. Make sure you’re in the room.”

He also highlighted the opportunity to hear directly from ATIA’s board.

“Every director on our Board is an ATIA member first,” Hunter said. “When a director speaks to you, you’re not hearing a governance update. You’re hearing from someone running an agency, a tour operation, a travel management company or a wholesale business, telling you first-hand what they’re seeing, what’s working and what isn’t.”

Merger and advocacy wins

The event follows what ATIA described as a year of evolution, including its strategic merger with CATO, which created a formal home within ATIA for tour operators and wholesalers. CATO now sits alongside ATMC, for travel management companies, and the Independent Travel Agents Association, for home-based and independent agents, giving ATIA three divisions.

“The merger between CATO and ATIA was a big deal for both organisations, and I want to formally recognise the courage and faith the CATO Board showed in recommending it to its members,” Hunter said. “Some of our biggest wins this year were about stopping something bad from happening to you. Come and hear how.”

Among the achievements ATIA will highlight are:

• defeating the deferred sales model for travel insurance
• industry-wide collaboration during the ongoing Middle East challenges
• successful lobbying of the Fijian Government to ensure the tourism services tax was not applied retrospectively.

“If there’s a single lesson this industry took out of COVID, it’s this: we are stronger when we collaborate in developing our positions, and when we speak with one voice it carries,” Hunter said.

Research briefings

Delegates will also hear new research from News Corp and Allianz, tested against what business leaders are seeing day to day. Sessions will examine consumer signals, the direction of traveller confidence, expected behavioural shifts and any gap between the data and conditions on the ground.

Members-only session

Accredited members can attend a closed-door session on Friday afternoon, where ATIA’s advocacy team will detail its work on aviation.

“If you’re an accredited member, don’t miss the closed-door session on Friday afternoon,” Hunter said. “Our advocacy team will take you behind the scenes on exactly what we’re doing on aviation, in a level of detail we simply can’t put on the main stage.”