Key to unlocking comprehensive passenger protection must be found
Monday, 13 Oct, 2009
0
TravelMole Guest Comment by Advantage Travel Centres chairman and former Scottish Passenger Agents Association president Willie Stewart
The ongoing battle to achieve, finally, a new, transparent, coherent and comprehensive consumer financial protection system in the UK finds a strong voice in David Speakman of Travel Counsellors (see previous TravelMole Guest Comments).
The ‘no strings, all-encompassing’ scheme he recommends is precisely what we need.
And I firmly believe – no less so than I did a number of years ago, when the SPAA initiated and brokered a working group of like-minded organisations to pursue this issue with the CAA and government – we must pursue both a shorter-term and a longer-term strategy in connection with consumer financial protection.
In the shorter term, the recent ABTA proposal on financial protection (and the lobbying efforts currently under way by ABTA, the SPAA and others to limit the damage to our business sector inflicted by upcoming increases in APD) should be pursued vigorously on all fronts.
In addition, though, our longer term objective must be to lobby successfully the incoming UK government, and the EU where and when appropriate, to conduct a thorough, exhaustive review of consumer financial protection, leading to the establishment of a new, coherent and comprehensive financial protection scheme which will, backed by appropriate primary and secondary legislation :
- provide every purchaser of travel (air, sea, rail, coach or car) and related services with an absolute guarantee, in the event of the failure of the provider (supplier or intermediary), of :
# un-interrupted continuation of their leisure / business travel arrangements
or
# provision of equivalent alternative travel and related services
or
# full refund of all monies paid, within a prescribed period
- provide clear, transparent and unequivocal information on the scheme and its provisions
- from the outset, establish and build consumer perception that the scheme is designed to be purchaser-funded; efficiently operated and administered, and effectively policed
Following the upcoming general election in the UK we will have one, rare, opportunity to obtain the focus of ministers and politicians on this vexed issue. Partial solutions will not suffice.
It is the responsibility of all of us in the UK travel sector, from non-commercial organisations such as ABTA and the SPAA, to commercial concerns like Advantage and Travel Counsellors, to ensure that this issue is aired, examined, debated and resolved – leaving no uncovered or grey areas to come back to haunt us in later years.
We must take this opportunity!
Phil Davies
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