Government promises guidance on revised package travel regulations

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will issue guidance on the revised Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) this summer ahead of these coming into force from April next year.

Willa Huang, head of core consumer rights at the department, promised “guidance on the specific changes” when she addressed the Abta Travel Law Seminar in London earlier this month, but said “we’re open to consulting on more”.

The core change in the revised regulations, signed off last December, is the removal of Linked Travel Arrangements (LTAs) from the package travel regime and reclassification of the main ‘type A’ LTA as a package.

This will redefine booking platforms offering flights, hotels, car hire and tourism experiences as package organisers when a customer books two or more services in a single visit, along with airlines offering accommodation or car hire and hotels offing experiences along with rooms.

Industry lawyer Rhys Griffiths, partner and head of travel at Fox Williams described the change as “potentially transformative” last month, involving “a major expansion of scope [by] bringing into regulation many businesses which have not traditionally considered themselves package organisers”.

The extension of the package regulations has been broadly welcomed by the trade.

Jo Kolatsis, director of Themis Advisory, told the seminar: “If you are an LTA type A operator you will move to full liability, [meaning a need to provide] care and assistance [to travellers] when things go wrong] and [liability for] personal injury claims, not just full insolvency protection.”

Kirsteen Vickerstaffe, general counsel and company secretary at On the Beach, welcomed the removal of LTAs, saying: “It’s a great move. It was confusing.”

She noted the 2018 reform of the regulations represented “a big change” for On the Beach, which had not previously acted as a package organiser. But she said: “In retrospect, making those changes strengthened our customer proposition. Customers want a package.”

Huang said the DBT would consult informally with the sector on the guidance, saying: “We’ll initially go out to key stakeholder groups. [But] we’re open to speaking to everyone who is interested to scope out the guidance.”

She also pledged the department would maintain a “dialogue with the sector” on issues related to the regulations but not covered by the reform, noting: “There were limitations to the [legislative] instrument we used to make these changes.”