Travel agents’ window cards praised by Trading Standards

TRADING Standards in Leicestershire has praised travel agents for improving window card displays but warned the crackdown on misleading advertising will continue.

A spot check by Trading Standards showed that three out of six of the county’s major travel agency chains have improved the information on their window cards since the last inspection a year ago.

All of those three have been warned or successfully prosecuted by Trading Standards in the past, the most recent being Thomson in October 2005, which was fined £7,000 for five breaches of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, and Going Places in May 2005, which was fined £4,500 for three offences.

In a change of tack this year Trading Standards officers opted not to mystery shop the branches but introduced themselves as Trading Standards and asked if they could check prices and systems.

Senior enforcement officer Louise Boyall said in the 30 branches visited, 73% of the holidays were available at the advertised price or less.

She said: “Company procedures were not necessarily being followed by each branch, which is to be expected to a certain extent because people get into bad habits, however, it reinforces the need for companies to monitor that things are being done as they should.”

Leicester-based Millington Independent Travel does not have window cards but does use posters to promote deals.

Director Nigel Armitage said: “We know Trading Standards is pretty hot on this and we make sure we are putting the right information in the window.”

Head of Leicestershire Trading Standards David Bull said: “We intend to revisit agents and where the systems have not improved we will put the matter before the courts.”