 The Canadian travel industry has lost a unique individual. Bruce Bishins died peacefully at 9am on January 16, 2013, his 62nd birthday.
Bruce suffered a major stroke just over a year ago and worked valiantly to rehabilitate himself. He never gave-up and throughout the struggle always kept his sense of humour. Bruce was a brilliant business person and an unstoppable advocate for small and medium travel agencies in Canada. Fluently multilingual, his career included working for several major international airlines in a wide variety of roles including training. His in- depth technical knowledge of the industry made him a formidable adversary. So feared was he in some industry circles that efforts were made to exclude him or prevent him from taking up an elected position. Bruce was highly articulate, very knowledgeable and more than a match for many a Bay St. lawyer who had the misfortune to argue against him. Very much the entrepreneur and visionary Bruce launched a number of new business ventures including Fare Spider and the Genesis GDS. He began the Airline Training Council to provide travel agents with training in the latest industry standards and also became the President and CEO of ARTA Canada. Most recently he was working on a new airline booking technology.
A wide group of friends and industry colleagues will dearly miss his clear thinking, sound advice and courageousness |
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ARTA Canada is the only trade association in Canada, the members of which are exclusively retail travel agents. It is the strategic partner in Canada of the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA).
ARTA was founded in 1963, by a small, but vocal group of retail travel agents. The Association of Retail Travel Agents continues to be the voice of small and independent travel agents across the country. ARTA has grown in stature from a maverick organization to a responsible, respected representative of a vital part of the travel industry.
While engaged in many projects at different levels, ARTA's two primary activities center around providing educational and training opportunities to all levels of agents and representation of their point of view before industry, government, and consumer organizations.
ARTA was the first agency association to welcome individual travel counsellors through its ranks.
ARTA's policies are grounded in the determination that small and medium sized agents must, and can, remain a viable source in the sales process, regardless of the competitive pressures. ARTA's role is to continue the fight to ensure an equitable competitive playing field and provide the educational and training services necessary to enable the individual agent to adjust to the challenges of these changing times.
ARTA Canada continues in the great tradition of ARTA, fighting for the rights of Canadian travel agencies, and remaining an agent-only travel agency association.
ARTA Canada is an independent, Canadian trade association based in Toronto, Ontario. ARTA (USA) is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
We look forward to your joining ARTA Canada. Thank you for your visit today.
