ABTA and eleven other organisations including the Metropolitan Police, have pooled their expertise to create a comprehensive guide to improving safety and security in the workplace for travel agents. The Travel Agent and Bureau Security [TABS] forum has published the guide today giving clear and comprehensive advice on how to both minimise risk and best deal with an incident if it arises.

John McEwan, ABTA Chairman and Advantage Travel Centres Ltd CEO, said: “There are many types of crime that affect businesses but few affect a business and its staff in quite the same way as an armed robbery. This can be damaging to a business but more importantly, very traumatic for those people unfortunate enough to be caught up in it. The TABS Forum was set up with the aim of producing best practise for the industry on combating this type of crime and I am pleased to be part of the Forum in my roles at both Advantage and ABTA. I can’t stress enough how important this advice is and would encourage travel agency staff at all levels to read this guide and help keep this type of crime out of our industry.”

Trevor Davis Chair of the Travel Agent and Bureau Security Forum said: “I am delighted that this cross-industry panel has been formed to work together and reduce incidents that blight our industry. While many travel agents already have security measures in place, others may not and this guide to improving safety and security will be a useful tool which will help reduce crime against travel agents.”

The guide will allow agents a structured and methodical approach to safety but also highlights less obvious areas of concern which have arisen in past robberies. For example, robbers have been known to hide in agency toilets so staff need make regular checks particularly before closing the shop.

The TABS guide is available in the Publications section of www.abta.com under Crime Prevention. ABTA Members can also access a further guidance note to safety and security in the workplace in the Members’ section of www.abta.com