We ask the question – Is It Really All God’s Fault when holidaymakers are either trapped or forced into destinations affected by Natural or Man Made Disasters? We take a look at the issue of Force Majeure in Holiday Contracts and examine the morality and possible legality of creating holiday contracts with all the potential that arises from a ‘risk destination’ - Is It Really All God’s Fault – 30.6.06.pdf 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

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 was astonished to read in the Travel Section of Saturday’s ‘Independent’ newspaper’, an advertisment by a major tour operator, offering an ‘unbelievable value’ holiday to Sri Lanka!  In the same paper (page 2) I could see the headline ‘UN brokers exit strategy for children trapped in war zone’!  Pictures showed Tamil children queuing for food and a shocking picture of a malnourished child, showing ’scenes of utter misery and hardship, a government health official in the region claimed that at least five children were dying every day from diarrhoea and malnutrition and that many mothers are too emaciated to nurse their babies’.  This is a purely personal observation (I respect those who differ from me and I am sure that there will be those who state that their visit will help the very people in question etc etc), even if I decided to take the risk of travelling to such a country, I could not in all conscience travel to a country with such misery and ‘enjoy myself ‘ in a five star all-inclusive hotel with all that going on up the road so to speak! Read More

HolidayTravelWatch notes with interest the report in The Sun Newspaper – ‘Global holiday terror risk soars’.  It raises the statistic created by the US Government, that there has been a 24% increase, since 2006, on the number of people killed by terrorist attacks.  It cites the fact that, ‘Many attacks happened in popular holiday spots such as India, Thailand and Sri Lanka’.  It is not clear from the article how many of those killed were in fact tourists, however, it does raise the question that ‘terrorism’ exclusion clauses should be ’scrapped’. Read More

This article first appeared in the Travel-Zine of HolidayTravelWatch; Get’Away – Your Route to Travel Rights. It examines the role of Travel Insurance where risk factors intervene during holidays. Such risk factors can be either man made or arise during a severe weather event. Read More

In response to a request from the Financial Services Authority, HolidayTravelWatch has submitted its opinion on the proposed regulations, which will govern the sale of Travel Insurance to Consumers from 1 January 2009. This submission will conclude a lengthy consultation process which began before the Treasury Select Committee, followed by the enquiry of HM The Treasury. Read More