The other day I was on a crowded beach when I heard the very plaintiff cry of “Mommy – where are you Mommy?”.  I looked up and saw a 3/4 year old girl walking between all of the holidaymakers lying on the beach.  It was quite clear that she was very upset and could not find her Mother amongst the crowds.  The beach consisted of British, French, Dutch, Irish and Spanish holidaymakers.  As the young girl approached my ‘pitch’, I noticed that not one holidaymaker got up to try and help her – they simply lay there soaking up the sun! Read More

The debate of swine flu and forthcoming holidays rumbles on!  The latest advice (we can only find the following two reports), apparently from Government, is that if you are suffering with swine flu when abroad – stay there until you recover!  Readers of our earlier blog on this matter will have noted our deep concern over the lack of travel insurance cover and how those ‘disinclined’ to travel, will not receive any benefit from their travel insurance policy!  Now we read in the Telegraph that the Insurance Industry is not so sure and will be talking to the Department for Health, but nonetheless they expect that their members will be ‘flexible’ on the issue – however, you would have to show real symptoms and not just simply a ‘disinclination’ to travel in order to receive a benefit from your travel insurance!  Well now you know, or not, as the case may be! Read More

So, we can now see the result of the swine flu pandemic – the BBC have reported that reports of this illness have jumped by 50%!  Do you remember our first blog on this issue, how the holidaymaker we reported on was dealt with by the HPA and Health Authorities?  Do you remember all those holidaymakers caught in the first outbreak in Mexico and how they were repatriated?  At the time some reports estimated that there were some 10,000 British holidaymakers in Mexico at the time!  What then happened to the holidaymakers when they returned to the UK: Read More

The news that a British Aircaft was subject to a smoke or fume event requiring evacuation of some 300 passengers and crew, is a timely reminder of the Aerotoxic Syndrome debate.  The question of what caused this event to occur is we hope still a matter for further investigation.  However, it was clear from the report that a number of passengers were overcome by fumes, but we are not assisted as to how many received assistance following this exposure.  The issue leads to a number of questions and we hope that the Committee of Toxicity (COT), the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have considered, irrespective of which airline is involved or whatever the cause of a smoke or fume event, to be a welcome opportunity to create an important set of guidelines on how such events should be monitored, for example, they should co-ordinate to ensure that: Read More

The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), has called for evidence on the issue of Aerotoxic or Sick Aircraft Syndrome.  Their investigation remit has stated that: 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