TUI warning over changes to Package Travel Directive
TUI Travel is urging regulators to simplify the Package Travel Directive to make it easier to understand for customers and the industry.
It is calling on the Council of Ministers and European Parliament to prevent confusion and to create two clear categories for package holiday cover – full cover and no cover.
While it said it welcomed the European Commission’s proposal to extend the scope of cover for travellers who book package holidays, it is not in favour of their introduction for Assisted Travel Arrangements.
TUI group legal director Mike Bowers said this would create "even more confusion" among customers and the travel industry over who is covered.
In a video on the TUI website, Bowers said: "There are plenty of customers out there now who are booking holidays without protection," said Bowers. "We believe that it is important for travellers to be protected but it should be clear and simple to avoid confusion.
"The European Commission is looking in to this to ensure more people are in scope and they have mostly done a good job proposing to expand the scope so if it broadly resembles a holiday it’s a package.
"Yet the introduction of another category, Assisted Travel Arrangements, is difficult to understand what’s really within it and what it really means. This is confusing for customers and industry whether they’re in the first category of package or the second category of Assisted Travel Arrangement.
"We are calling upon regulators to make it easier to understand and clarify which ones are covered. What we would have liked to have seen from the Commission, and still do, is two categories for customers which are easy to understand – either a fully protected package or none at all."
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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