TIME is running
out for agents and operators selling package holidays without an ATOL,
following a meeting between Government departments and the travel industry.
Representatives
from the industry – including ABTA, the Association of Independent Tour
Operators and the Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee – urged
the Department of Trade and Industry to stop companies without an ATOL bond
from selling package holidays. The practice – whereby dual invoices are issued
for the flight and the accommodation – has reportedly cost ABTA £2 million
since the issue came to light.
ATIPAC has asked
the DTI to crack down on the loophole which currently leaves consumers
unprotected.
Both sides
described the initial meeting as ‘constructive and amicable’, and further
meetings between the DTI, the Department of Transport, Local Government and the
Regions and the Civil Aviation Authority have been planned.
However a DTI spokeswoman
said it was still unclear whether consumers lost out. “The travel industry
agreed to provide hard evidence to identify the ways dual invoicing can occur,”
she said.
ATIPAC chairman
John Cox said: “Our objective is to get the ATOL regulations revised so they
are consistent with the Package Travel Regulations which were last revised in
1995.
“We are not trying
to stop legitimate travel agency activity. It’s the smart alecks we want to
eliminate. We want to bring the regulations in line with the Package Travel
Directive, but much more immediate is the need to close the loophole.”
Association of
Independent Tour Operators deputy chairman Noel Josephides voiced the travel
industry’s demands for a level playing field. “We achieved what we wanted to in
that we brought the problem to the attention of the DTI and it understands the
problem.”
He added: “It is
now up to Government to decide what recommendations it is going to make in
order to change the ATOL regulations.”
Josephides added there are around 300-400 companies who are avoiding
having to pay for ATOL bonding. “It’s not the little agents that do it
occasionally, it’s the ones that are doing it to make a living.”