HolidayTravelWatch has been engaged in researching and drafting their latest report to the EU Commission on the future of The Package Travel Directive.  This review is the latest in a long line of Consultations either commissioned by the UK Government or The EU Commission.  The Directive has been incorporated into UK Law in 1992 as The Package Travel Regulations.  Many thousands of holidaymakers have in recent years suffered with a variety of holiday complaints, such as holiday illness (Salmonella, Cryptosporidum, Shigella, Campylobacter, Legionnaires etc), building work, significant changes to holidays, holiday price changes, name change charges, poor hygiene standards, exposure to toxins, aerotoxic syndrome, failures in kids clubs, poor safety standards, poor representation, poor responses to complaints, financial failures of airlines and travel companies and many more.  This Organisation has collated many examples of how holidaymakers have suffered and provided the Commission and Parliament with those first hand accounts of how Consumer Protection legislation is failing them.  Our report, along with the completed EU Commission questionnaire, illustrates that at the heart of this Consumer Protection debate, we remain resolute in our determination that ordinary holidaymakers view will be heard!  The challenge now rests with the EU Commission and the EU Parliament! Read More

Since the latter part of 2009 we have all watched with interest and sorrow whilst the toll of economic collapse takes place around us.  The events surrounding the fall of the latest travel company, Globespan, provides an interesting window into the workings of travel companies, so-called ‘regulation’ and the plight of the holiday consumer and their complaints. Read More

This is a critical moment for the future of EU holidaymakers and in particular, British holidaymakers! In 1990, the EU created the Package Travel Directive which was then adopted into various National Laws; the UK adopted this Directive as The Package Travel Regulations in 1992. Many millions of EU holidaymakers have enjoyed the benefit of Protection under this Directive – those Protections are now seriously threatened. Since 2003, there has been an attempt by the Travel Industry to reinterpret these Regulations, by reinventing themselves as ‘travel agents’, through internet sales. Whilst we are to be rightly concerned with the Financial Protection of holidaymakers, we must also be aware of the many other detriments or problems suffered by holidaymakers, which, according to online terms and conditions, are not the responsibility of these new ‘travel agents’! It is now imperative that the Consumer position is presented to the EU Commission following the announcement of their latest Consultation on Holiday Rights. It is simple; if the Commission is persuaded to keep the ‘internet’ players outside the remit of any new Directive, Consumers will be returned to the so-called pre-1992 ‘Golden Age’ of Travel when there was little or no Consumer Protection. The answers to this survey will be used to back up previous HolidayTravelWatch surveys and its findings will be presented to the EU Commission in February 2010. Your contribution is both valuable and timely – we would like to thank you for your kind assistance on this survey! Read More

The recent case of CAA v Travel Republic has once again opened the debate as to what constitutes a ‘Package’.  The debate has naturally centred on the issue of Consumer Financial Protection and the reader could be forgiven for thinking that this issue is all that rests at the heart of what is meant by Consumer Protection.  Read More

Those of us working within the Travel Industry (there are those who think that HolidayTravelWatch is not part of the Industry – oh well!) have since 2005, commented on the growth of the so-called DIY or Dynamically Packaged Holiday and the threat to Consumer Rights.  For our part, we have illustrated very clearly to the UK Government and the EU Commission the real detriment being suffered, not just by British Holidaymakers, but also by other EU Citizens!  For the last 2 years the EU Commission has been building up a body of information through consultations and surveys and it was expected that from this autumn through to the spring 2010, they would announce their proposals for a revised Package Travel Directive. Read More

Holiday TravelWatch Clinic – Case Study (Significant Change Rights – Pre & Post Departure): Read More

We often hear from holidaymakers who do not receive their holiday information in time for their holiday.  Regulation 8 of The Package Travel Regulations creates the obligation that information must be provided in good time.  Before the journey starts, information must be provided to the holidaymaker in writing or ‘in some other appropriate form’.  That information includes, times of transport, stops, details of accommodation on transport.  The names, addresses and telephone numbers of the local representative or agency where there is no rep—if neither exist, the contact details of the tour operator.  There are additional details that must be provided where the holidaymaker is under 16 years of age.  Where an insurance policy has been taken out, information on that policy.  The Regulation goes onto state that where the information is not supplied, the tour operator shall be guilty of a criminal offence, which on either summary conviction or conviction on indictment they can be subjected to a fine. Read More