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About Uftaa

As a globally recognized body UFTAA is the longest established negotiating partner with the leading travel and tourism organisations in the world. UFTAA represents the essence of the Industry with its key focus areas including Advocacy; Networking; Education and enabling our members to remain engaged on global dialogues.

UFTAA logo on your business signages, grants our members, the opportunity to express themselves as an organization with a global access.

Of a special importance is the close co-operation with IATA. UFTAA had represented the interest of individual travel agents and as a partner in the IATA-UFTAA Training Programme. Two other organisations with close relationship are the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA) and the International Road Union (IRU). Also in areas which are more distanced from the daily worries of travel agents has UFTAA actively been and still is a spokes-person for the agent´s interest.

Through its history UFTAA has been a faithful, active and neutral advocate for all associations and independent travel agencies, irrespective of size and location. In the competitive environment of today a neutral umbrella organisation like UFTAA is needed more than ever before to defend and promote the interests of travel agencies in their professional work on behalf and for the travelling consumers. UFTAA is represented globally, in over 65 countries of the world, through its member association and federations, organizations; institutions and individual member agencies in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality industry to get connected via UFTAA. UFTAA continues to inspire and encourage industry leaders to stay connected globally, in this fast evolving world.

UFTAA now eagerly awaits to celebrate its Diamond Jubilee in a few years from now. After UFTAA’s most celebrated Golden Jubilee, commemorating 50 years of successful contribution to the Travel & Tourism Industry at a largely attended Golden Jubilee Congress in 2016,

UFTAA offers its membership the valuable opportunity to be involved with UFTAA’s networking global platform in order to support the good health of the travel and tourism industry. UFTAA is currently engaged as we are launching our Global Tourism Connect – a platform to enable UFTAA members to optimize the UFTAA network, and to be able to offer or to buy products and services, members may require, globally.

UFTAA continues to successfully partner with many B2B Exhibitions, held globally, and looks forward to even more partnerships, since this initiative of UFTAA addresses

the very purpose of a B2B Connect. Some of our key partnerships include ITB, SATTE, IMTM, TTI & more.

The high-level contacts, UFTAA has with several global forums, have enable UFTAA to assist national associations in their contacts with authorities and also to help individual agencies.

THE ORIGIN OF UFTAA

In the 1960s at the dawn of mass tourism, a few tourism professionals with great foresight saw the need of a global umbrella organisation for the travel agency industry. By merger of Fédération internationale des agences de voyages (FIAV) and United Organization of Travel Agents’ Associations (UOTAA), the United Federation of Travel Agents ‘Associations (UFTAA) was formed on November 22nd 1966 in Rome. Its first President was an Italian, Giuliano Magnoni, later followed by 24 leading personalities from all parts of the world. The federation was later renamed United Federation of Travel Agents´ Associations, still known under the same well-established acronym UFTAA.