Brits’ ‘weak stomachs’ have made them ‘laughing stock of Europe’
Thomas Cook Group chief executive Peter Fankhauser claimed today that British tourists have become the laughing stock of Europe due to a 500% rise in holiday sickness claims.
Fankhauser, a Swiss national, told the ABTA Travel Matters conference that there was a joke that the British have weak stomachs and the Germans have stronger constitutions.
"Europe is laughing at the Brits, but this is not a good situation," he said. "It is starting to backfire on British holidaymakers and on the industry."
He said that as a result of what ABTA described as a ‘steep and unprecedent’ rise in claims, many of which are bogus, the future of all-inclusive package was threatened as hoteliers are growing increasingly reluctant to take British holidaymakers and risk fake food-poisoning claims. "We are seeing this with some of our big hotel partners," added Fankhauser. "And the Germans are laughing again because they will get the rooms."
Fankhauser blamed the UK government for being too slow to close a loophole that allows unlimited damages claims for overseas sickness claims while claims for injuries sustained in the UK come under a fixed cost regime.
ABTA claims there has been a rise in the number of management companies targeting holidaymakers in resorts and encouraging them to submit bogus sickness claims. The Foreign Office has started warning holidaymakers travelling to holiday hotspots about such firms and of the risks of submitting false claims. It has recently added Cyprus to the list of destinations where claims touts are known to be operating.
And the Government announced in the Queen’s Speech this month that it plans to regulate claims management companies, bringing them within the oversight of the FCA for the first time.
However, ABTA launched a ‘Stop Sickness Scams’ campaign last week to try to encourage the government to go further and limit holiday sickness claims to a fixed amount. When the Association’s chief executive Mark Tanzer was asked at Travel Matters by Independent travel correspondent Simon Calder if he thought that a government that had so much on its plate really had time for such a matter, Tanzer replied: "I’m not a lawyer but I understand it’s a relatively small change."
Barrister Sarah Prager, who specialises in defending personal injury claims, told Travel Matters she had seen a ‘huge increase’ in holiday sickness claims at her London law firm.
"Until about a year ago food poisoning claims were a very small part of my practice and most were genuine and very serious, A year ago, it was mostly people who fell down the stairs in Turkey, now it is people who have been ‘a bit ill’ for a couple of weeks," she said.
"There has been a massive increase in these claims, and tour operators aren’t coping, they aren’t coping."
Prager said some hotels were beginning to take matters into their own hands and using ‘direct action’ to deal with claims management companies operating in resorts. Her advice to UK tour operators was to settle ‘obviously genuine’ claims and ‘go in hard on obvious fraudulent ones’.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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