GOVERNMENT help for holidaymakers caught in a crisis is damaging tour operators’ business, according to a senior industry figure.
Federation of Tour Operators director-general Andy Cooper said Foreign and Commonwealth Office intervention leads consumers to believe there is no need to use a bonded operator.
“It’s not helpful that the FCO brings people home. Customers just assume protection exists,” Cooper told the ABTA Travel Convention.
After Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun in October, the FCO flew UK citizens to Dallas in a private jet. Director of consular services Paul Sizeland said: “It’s important for us to show we care. We are pushing the insurance message.”
But he conceded: “It is an area where we can learn to do more with the travel industry. “More and more we’re saying, ‘You have to take responsibility for yourself’. There is no point screaming, ‘I’m a Brit, get me out of here’.”
The FCO hopes to develop links with the trade through a liaison officer.
Crisis management company Docleaf managing director David Pearl questioned why operators don’t advertise the protection they offer but Cooper said adverts risked giving travel a negative image.
The cost of repatriating victims of natural disasters should be met by an emergency fund paid for by a levy, the National Audit Office has demanded.
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