European hoteliers are raising prices and threatening to withdraw from the UK market in response to the explosion in overseas holiday sickness claims by British holidaymakers.
Andy Cooper, head of regulation, compliance and resilience at the UK’s number-three tour operator Jet2Holidays, said: “This is a serious threat.”
Cooper told the Abta Travel Matters conference in London last week: “There is something fundamentally wrong with a legal process that makes it cheaper to pay a claim than fight it.
“We have a 24-hour helpline for customers with problems in resort, we have holiday reps [in resort] we collect questionnaires from holidaymakers in resort and none show any evidence of an increase in sickness, but there is an increase in claims.”
As a consequence, he said: “Hoteliers are increasing prices and threatening to withdraw from the British market. We’re working with hoteliers to help them, but we need the government to act.”
Kevin Rousell, head of claims management regulation at the UK Ministry of Justice, said: “We try to regulate the claims management companies. [But] there are unauthorised entities operating in resorts as touts, harvesting claims by social media, creating leads and passing them on.
“Regulated claims management companies need to comply with quite strict rules. They have a responsibility to deal only with legal leads. They rarely get leads themselves. A lot of my time is spent tracking down companies to see they are compliant.”
Rousell added: “The unregulated businesses are more difficult. It’s difficult to prosecute people overseas. We try to disrupt their work. But if no one was prepared to buy these leads there would be no market. There is a pot of money for the solicitor making the claims.”
Barrister Sarah Prager, of London law firm 1 Chancery Lane, acts for both claimants and defendants. She said: “Until a year ago, food poisoning claims were a very small part of my practice and usually quite serious.
“Now it is mostly sickness and I suspect most are fraudulent. The difficulty is working out who is telling the truth and who isn’t.
“Currently, if a holidaymaker claims sickness and did not eat outside the resort, the hotel is responsible and the tour operator liable. There are particular gastroenterologists who will make that link.”
She advised: “Pick the claims that are obviously genuine and settle them. Pick the ones that are obviously fraudulent and prosecute them hard.”
Cooper explained why UK tour operators and Abta had decided to go public with a campaign to stop bogus claims.
He said: “Staying silent wasn’t an option. There are external pressures – hoteliers want us to demonstrate we take this seriously. But this is going to result in prices rising or all-inclusives withdrawing their offer, so we had to act.”