At the Advantage Travel Partnership conference in Benidorm today, Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer announced an exclusive partnership with the Safer Tourism Foundation.

The Safer Tourism Foundation was established in 2016, ten years after the deaths of two children, Bobby and Christi Shepherd, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning whilst on holiday in Corfu in 2006. Bobby and Christi’s mother, Sharon Wood, has worked with the travel industry to develop the Safer Tourism Foundation, as a positive legacy from this tragedy, with Thomas Cook providing the initial funding for the charity.

Since its inception, the Foundation has been working closely with a good number of UK tour operators and following today’s announcement Advantage will be their first agency partner.

Cookes, said: “We are delighted to be launching an exclusive partnership with the Safer Tourism Foundation.  Over the coming weeks, we will communicating with members how they can be involved with the Foundation, and we will also be developing a pledge that members can sign up to showcase the importance that they place on guiding customers through every step of their travel experience, building confidence and expertise across all health and safety aspects of taking a holiday.”

In return for signing up to the Foundation, members will be given access to a logo that can be used explaining what the partnership means.

Chief Executive of the Safer Tourism Foundation, Katherine Atkinson, said: “Agents play a critical role in helping people make decisions about the holiday that will suit them best, and they are trusted sources of information as people plan for their trip. So, they are in a brilliant position to weave in messages about risk and safety, in a non-threatening and personalised way. Advantage is a great partner for Safer Tourism as a charity because of its scale and range of members. Working together we hope to be able to reach as many customers as possible so that all of them have fantastic, trouble-free holidays.”