ting Atol holders’ agency agreements from the consortium’s preferred partners on its members’ intranet in a move to simplify the new process.

Under the initiative, members who make bookings with Atol holders in accordance with the commercial terms that Advantage has negotiated can access the appropriate agency agreement on the intranet.

The system will automatically populate the agency agreement with the individual member's name. Advantage says this will ensure compliance with the requirement to have an agreement in place between the Atol holder and the agent. Agents can save, download or print the individual agreement for safekeeping.

Leisure director Julia Lo Bue-Said said: “Travel agents are obliged to hold agency agreements with all operators for whom they sell.

“As independent agents Advantage members generally sell travel from a large number of tour operators.

“Complying with the new legislation would have been an onerous task especially for a small business. The fact that we have been able to devise this simplified process has saved members considerable time and effort in ensuring they are compliant with the new regulations.

Tony Mann, director at Idle Travel in Bradford, said: “It has been a very busy and stressful time for travel agents to make sure the correct procedure is in place to comply with the up to date Atol regulations.

“Advantage has helped ease that pain by having the majority of our Atol agency agreements hosted on the membersâ€