After a preliminary meeting in Frankfurt, Germany in 1985, the first ever association of discount travel agents was formed in 1986 by a small group of German, Swiss, Dutch, Singaporean, Australian and English travel agents.
The association was founded as ITA (International Travel Association) in Amsterdam by Ad Latjes, Koos Schouten, Folke von Knobloch, Rudi Weissmann, Daniel Staeger and other discount travel industry experts as a platform for discount travel specialists, consolidators and bucketshops from all over the world.