TORONTO — TICO’s new consumer awareness campaign urges travellers to book their trips with TICO-registered travel agencies and websites. The campaign kicks off today with a new TV ad that will air on all Ontario television networks for four weeks.

TICO conducted a number of roundtable sessions with agency owners and frontline agents “and they asked us to depict to consumers the possible pitfalls of what could happen when a consumer bypasses using an Ontario travel agency/agent (whether online or in person) when booking their travel services,” said Dorian Werda, TICO’s Vice President, Operations. “We listened and we have included this strategy and messaging in our new television commercial.” It will also appear for four weeks online, she added.

The ad shows a family’s trip that is affected by a common travel oversight – an expired passport – a and encourages consumers to look for the TICO logo to ensure they will have all the information they need for their trip.

“As Ontario’s Travel Regulator we aim to establish consumer trust and confidence that TICO registered travel agencies and websites are knowledgeable and operate with professionalism and integrity,” said Werda. “Front line travel agents asked us to try to depict what can happen when a consumer doesn’t use a registered travel agent to book travel. We listened … that’s just what this campaign does. When consumers are booking travel, we want them to ‘Look for the TICO logo’ for peace of mind.”

TICO is advising all travel agents and travel wholesalers to make sure their businesses are ready to leverage this exposure by having the TICO logo on all of their contact points (website, ads, invoices, business cards and brochures).