Holiday cancellations: agencies demand clearer crisis rules

When a crisis forces a holiday to change or be cancelled, travel agencies can face costs they cannot recover from suppliers. Travel agency group UNAV-Fetave wants clearer rules to protect both travellers and the firms dealing with the disruption. Its president, César Gutiérrez, made the call at a legal conference in Madrid.

Who pays when a trip falls through?

Gutiérrez said agencies that organise trips may have to answer for services they do not provide themselves. They cannot always recover the cost from the suppliers that do. He wants responsibility and financial risk shared more fairly across the businesses involved in a trip.

María Dolores Serrano, the group’s legal director, said package holidays offer travellers safeguards when extraordinary events, such as a pandemic, conflict or natural disaster, disrupt a trip. Depending on the circumstances, those safeguards include refunds, help for travellers and, where appropriate, repatriation. They also cover responsibility for the trip and protection if a business becomes insolvent.

What the agencies want changed

UNAV-Fetave wants revised European rules to spell out travellers’ rights and the duties of organisers and sellers, particularly when a crisis crosses borders. Serrano said the rules must also be workable for the companies expected to put those protections into practice.

The group has already proposed financial help, support with cancellations and exceptional assistance costs, and a standing channel with the authorities in response to the Middle East crisis. It also offered legal advice and guidance to agencies affected by this summer’s fires.

Topics: Fires · Tourism · Politics · Economy

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com