HolidayTravelWatch continues to hear from Travel Consumers suffering ’Holiday Sickness’ detriment in their holiday contracts. A recent call for help came from a Mr P1, he stated:

“After only ONE day and having only ONE evening meal and one breakfast I became very ill with diarrohea and vomiting sickness.
This was reported immediately to the hotel clinic located at the hotel for the apparently regular cases. I spoke to the assistant doctor.The doctor was not on site at this time so I decided to go straight away to the local pharmacy shop and get some medication for my distressing symptoms.  I received some Antidel medication and some other medication and salt tablets, which I proceeded to take as prescribed.  Unfortunately, my symptoms did not alleviate immediately and I had severe illness for several days and could not eat almost at all although I did eat some bread and water as I was advised to do so.  It is my opinion that the hotel food caused this illness. Which has obviously ruined my holiday.  Additionally, you need to be aware that there is a serious situation here at this hotel and there are an alarming number of people with the same symptoms some on drips and actually one evening a person was carried out of the dining  room vomiting.  This situation is serious and I have spoken to the doctor and his assistant about this and they have both agreed that it is not acceptable ,although when I asked how many people where getting ill they refused to comment, but the doctor did say he was very concerned about the situation.  I talked to several people in the hotel and  it seemed that the people that were only bed and breakfast were ok and no problems ,although admittedly I am no expert but this does warrant serious investigation.  It is important that you know that I also had a private meeting with hotel manager about this situation but of course he would not admit liability and made excuses of the different climate conditions and eating cold and hot fluids which upset the stomach. However, I totally refute this and suggest he is avoiding the serious situation.  I firmly believe that this is now a serious Health and Safety Issue and should be reported to the relevant Health and Safety Executive who deals with this”.  (E.07.07)

Mr P1 has received advice and assistance from the team at HolidayTravelWatch.

Frank Brehany, the Senior Consumer Advocate of HolidayTravelWatch states;

“This extract from Mr P1’s letter, to his Tour Operator, illustrates the clear intelligence and willingness of a Travel Consumer, to go that extra mile to make his holiday work.  However, tour companies and hoteliers often treat the Travel Consumer as if they are stupid!  Holidaymakers know when things are wrong, when there are failures, when there are poor standards, why cannot then Travel Companies do the same, or is the rush to the cash till more compelling?  The EU Commission and the British Government ignore the problems of the Travel Consumer at their peril!”.

All Holidaymakers affected by any of these issues should contact HolidayTravelWatch for further assistance.

Note to Editors:

Since 2005, HolidayTravelWatch has provided comment on the ever increasing threat to The Package Travel Regulations. This situation has developed partly through the changing style of purchasing holidays, but principally from the Court of Appeal decision as to what they considered constituted a ‘package’.

After considerable debate, the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) has produced a Guidance note, in an attempt to assist with the definition as to what constitutes a ‘package’. Why is this definition important? Simply, if an agent or operator can show that they are simply selling components, then they will escape the regulatory requirements of the Air Tour Operator licence (ATOL) scheme and, the provisions of The Package Travel Regulations. If that is the case, then the hard fought rights to protect the consumer will be lost. The consumer will be unprotected.

We have contributed to the continued debate, submitting our report examining consumer detriment, to the EU Commission and DBERR in October 2007. In that report we highlighted th very real risk that is now faced by the British Travel Consumer, through 160 case studies. We have also provided what we consider to be the solution to the diminution of Travel Consumer rights.

The EU Commission are currently reviewing the Package Travel Directive, but the result of their enquiries, along with their recommendations, is not expected for some time. The reaction to the recent Guidance produced by DBERR, produced a cautious welcome from the Travel Industry, but it does not deal with their principle concern, that being the market operations of the airline industry. They argue, if they are subject to a regulatory regime, then so should the airline industry when they sell holidays on their websites. We have argued that any regulatory regime should apply across the board, not just to one segment of the Travel Industry.

We have predicted, a notion rejected by DBERR, that their Guidance note and the Court of Appeal decision gives a green light to those who want to ‘deregulate’ the package holiday.

HolidayTravelWatch has launched its petition, calling on Government and the EU Commission to protect the rights of Consumers in Holiday Contracts.

Tags: ABTA Code of Conduct, Free Holiday Complaints Letters, holiday complaints, Holiday Sickness Claims

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am and is filed under HolidayTravelWatch PressCentre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.