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- You only have to put up Seventy Thousand Pesos (P70,000.00) to instantaneously become a part owner of an IATA accredited travel agency which otherwise requires a minimum investment of Six Million Pesos (P6,000,000.00) to establish, must have to comply with stringent accreditation criteria, and have yet to operate for at least year before it could qualify for accreditation by IATA. As a member you could aspire to be elected as a Director of the cooperative and thereby be able to participate in the management of the travel agency.
- The company that you represent will benefit immensely from your membership in the TCP. If you are an independent travel agency owner or executive, your company will have access to nett fares that are enjoyed only by IATA accredited agents and thereby be able to offer your clients competitive rates like any other IATA accredited agent.
- If the company that you represent is in the hotel, resort, cruise, or tourist car rental sectors, you will have the opportunity of getting your products and services adopted by the TCP and included in its product offerings.
- Since there is no limit to the number of cooperators that may be admitted to the TCP, the funds that will be available for the pursuit of the cooperative’s other business activities, including that of lending to members, will grow as membership increases. This financial strength which accrues to the benefit of each member, is unique to the cooperative and may not at all be aspired for by an ordinary IATA accredited travel agent unless it is a publicly listed corporation.
- The TCP is exempted from all taxes and fees imposed under internal revenue laws and from the value-added tax (VAT) imposed in Section 109 (u) of the Tax Code of 1997. The cooperative can acquire VAT-free, equipment, service vehicles, tourist buses and other assets that it may need to pursue such other complementary tourism and travel businesses as land tours provider.
- Abacus Distribution Systems Philippines, the dominant reservations system provider in the country, has a tie-up agreement with the TCP and among the benefits that Abacus is providing to TCP members is online access to the nett fares of the TCP. For members who find the cost of a regular subscription to Abacus as a bit prohibitive, Abacus has made available exclusively for TCP members an internet-based reservations system at a much lower subscription fee than is assessed on a regular subscriber. The subscription fee is even waived if the member generates a minimal confirmed bookings quota each month with the member being further given incentives on bookings generated in excess of the quota.
- The TCP also has a cash management agreement with Equitable PCI Bank which allows members to conveniently remit payments to the TCP with any branch of the bank nationwide that may be verified instantaneously by the TCP online through a system that was installed by the bank. Equitable PCI has also provided the TCP with an additional Standby Letter of Credit amounting to P5 Million for IATA which doubled the ticket stock allocation of the TCP without the infusion of additional funds.
- Members will also benefit from the international affiliations of the TCP with global travel organizations and from its accreditation with international travel suppliers, including cruise lines, tour operators, and land arrangers.
- The cooperative provides members through its Education and Training Committee and in cooperation with NAITAS, free training programs for skills development, financial control, and marketing of different products and services.
- In as much as the TCP is IATA accredited, members through the auspices and facilities of the TCP, may apply for accreditation as a travel supplier of corporations having extensive travel requirements and be invited to bid regularly for their travel needs.
- Each member’s individual production is rewarded proportionately with a patronage refund at the end of each fiscal year. The more production that a member contributes to the sales of the cooperative, the bigger is the share that the member obtains of the patronage refund.
- With an increasingly growing membership, the volume of sales that the TCP expects to make should substantially exceed that of an ordinary IATA agent that does not and cannot have the support of such a wide network of sales intermediaries. With an extraordinarily large sales production, the TCP would be able to obtain incentives and more benefits for its members from the airlines, hotels, and other travel suppliers.
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