Why is TICO spending money on consumer awareness?
TICO is required to educate the public about the protections available under the Act and Regulation and about the existence of the Ontario Travel Compensation Fund. It is part of TICO’s consumer protection mandate. TICO believes that this initiative is also beneficial to Ontario registrants as the goal of the campaign is to make consumers aware of the benefits of booking travel through an Ontario registered travel agent. This is extremely important given the current trend towards booking directly with suppliers. TICO has the Consumer Awareness Campaign evaluated each year and it has been effective. Awareness of TICO has been increasing. Thus, the message about the importance of dealing with a registrant is getting out there. Unfortunately, there is still more work to be done. The Omnibus Survey found that 45% of consumers are aware of the existence of the Compensation Fund and 40% of consumers are aware of TICO. That means that over 50% of people still need to be educated about TICO an
