In a recent edition of the Travel Trade Gazette a letter was written by a travel agent under the title - ‘Protection crisis is harming the good guy’s reputations’.  It is important to consider the key points that this agent raised.  They argue that if you sell insurance or other financial products you have to be accredited or certified.  They also highlight regulatory requirements if you sell food or are involved in certain building work.  The writer of the letter then states - “So surely the ruling should be if you want to sell holidays and travel to the consumer, you must be bonded.  No bond, no business.  Too many companies come and go, owing thousands of pounds to consumers.  They offer ‘cheap’ holidays, often making pennies and wonder where it all went wrong.  This then tars us with the same brush.  The good guys are bonded, offer protection, have better knowledge and care about the consumer.  They are not there to make a quick buck”. Read More

We have spoken recently with a holidaymaker who took a short break in England.  He decided to spend a long week-end in Cardiff and booked into a hotel near to the airport.  On the day of his arrival he reports that he was not suffering with any health problems.  Further, he also reports that the room was clean and tidy, with no debris left behind by any previous guest.  Within a day, he began to complain of feeling cold and toward the end of the week-end was suffering with a bad throat, aching in the back of his legs, high temperature, no energy and a dry cough.  The holidaymaker believed that he was developing flu. Read More

We have heard of one hotel in Egypt where the range of holiday complaints are diverse and this leads me to think that the Egyptian Tourist Authorities have still not got this right!  I had asked previously as to whether Egypt was the new Dominican Republic for Holiday Illness - I had hoped that 2009 would prove that this was not the case!  Regular readers will know that we have highlighted the manner in which holiday complaints were being ‘handled’, either by the travel industry or by hoteliers, raising the concern that holidaymakers were in fact being bullied away from making complaints! Read More

The issue of Holiday Financial Protection through the ATOL scheme has attracted intense scrutiny since the collapse of the XL Group and Freedom Direct.  We have been guiding Mr & Mrs A - consider this quote from Mrs A - “the more this is highlighted the better - various people who I have spoken to - are under the impression that if a Tour Operator has an ABTA/ATOL No, they are covered - how wrong they are!!”  Mr & Mrs A booked a holiday through the collapsed travel provider, Freedom Direct.  They purchased a flight, hotel and transfers, all stated as one inclusive price.  They have advised that it was their intention to purchase a package holiday and that there was nothing that they could see or hear, which put them on notice that it was anything other than a package holiday! Read More

Well the Burmese authorities finally showed their true colours - the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi  - and holiday companies and apologists for this regime still want tourists to visit this country?  Here are the Google results for holidays currently for sale to Burma! Disbelief! Read More

I see that the travel press is all a buzz about ‘risk destinations’ and how you wouldn’t know that there was a problem when you get there!  One such article ‘How troubled is Thai Tourism?’ analysed the ‘risk’ of travelling to Thailand and provided a travel industry view on the risks to a holidaymaker, however, the article did not raise the thorny issue of the effect of such troubles on the travel insuarance product and whether a holidaymaker would be covered or not!  There is clearly concern growing about the Thailand destination; this is such an important issue, as holidaymakers have discovered, travel to certain destinations (Kenya, Cuba, Mexico, Thailand) has or could potentially leave them without insurance cover! Read More

I have just booked a short flight for two with a major airline.  I reached the end of my booking to discover that a flight that I had thought was going to cost £139.00 was now in fact close to £250!  I was at the point of ‘click n’ go’ - when I discovered that this cheap flight was £111 extra!  Read More