ABTA has again written to government ministers, including the office of the Prime Minister, urging for immediate action to prevent “catastrophic damage” to the UK travel industry, and “widespread consumer detriment”.

The leading travel trade association is once again calling for the Government to take action and help UK travel businesses that have been under “enormous financial strain” with the collapse in sales coupled with customer repatriation costs and refund demands.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: 

“The global pandemic has put enormous financial strain on tour operators and travel agents, with businesses seeing a collapse in sales while facing immediate repatriation costs and refund demands for cancelled holidays on a scale that is unmanageable in the short term.

“These businesses are themselves waiting for refunds from hotels and airlines and without this money, they simply do not have the cash to provide refunds to customers within 14 days.

“Existing regulations are entirely unsuited to deal with this situation. We want to avoid the scenario of normally successful travel businesses employing tens of thousands of people facing bankruptcy, resulting in holidaymakers having to wait many months for refunds through Government financial protection schemes.

“We are proposing some simple, temporary changes to regulations to buy more time for companies to keep trading, while ensuring customer rights are protected.

“Many European countries, including France, Belgium, Denmark and Italy, have already announced similar regulatory changes to preserve their travel industries and protect customers.”

ABTA is asking the Government to recognise the unprecedented nature of the situation and proposes the following temporary amendments to the Package Travel Regulations:

• That the 14-day window for refund payments should be extended to a four-month period.
• That Government should confirm the ongoing protection of refund credits.
• That where suppliers (e.g. hotels or airlines) cannot or will not refund tour operators, there should be an emergency government consumer hardship fund to help fulfill refund payments.

ABTA has called on the Government to take strong enforcement action against airlines who flout the law by withholding refunds due following the cancellation of flights.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reported last week that to 75 million jobs are at “immediate risk” in global Travel & Tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in a GDP loss to the world economy of up to $2.1 trillion in 2020.

Visit gov.uk for the latest coronavirus travel advice.