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ABTA set to survey members over their PTD intentions
ABTA will be contacting its members next week to establish how each one will be adapting their business to the new Package Travel Directives coming into force on July 1.
The association wants to assess which members might need additional help with updating their insurance and applying for ATOLs in light of the new requirements.
It is believed the final guidance from BEIS – the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee – will be provided sometime next week.
The industry is also eagerly awaiting information from the Civil Aviation Authority on ATOL reforms.
Rhys Griffiths, partner head of travel group for Fieldfisher, said he believes the CAA is ready but is waiting for the Department for Transport to give approval.
The CAA is obliged to give 28 days notice when changes need to be made so it is hoped the confirmation will come by June 1.
ABTA head of financial protection said the association’s account managers were on hand ready to assist members with any changes to their businesses.
Delegates at this week’s ABTA Travel Law Seminar were advised to share statutory consumer rights information with their customers early in the booking process.
Director of legal affairs Simon Bunce said this approach would give agents the chance, should they want it, to upsell to a package to customers who want the additional protection.
Joanna Kolatsis, partner and head of aviation and travel for Hill Dickinson, told agents whose businesses involve the new category of Linked Travel Arrangements to always urge on the side of caution.
She said these risk being classified as packages if certain criteria apply and if travel companies aren’t completely transparent with customers.
"You have to think about the booking processes. If it looks and smells like a package, it’s going to be a package," she said.
She said companies who decide they don’t want to be an organiser need to set up their business from a consumer facing perspective.
"Know your model. There is no room for ambiguity. Contracts are going to be really important," she said.
She said the lines are easily blurred and some LTAs will end up with organiser liability anyway .
"We will see people getting tripped up," she added.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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