Travel Republic’s court victory presents a perfect opportunity for the trade to continue to lobby for an industry-wide consumer financial protection scheme, according to Advantage chief executive John McEwan.
His comments follow the news that online travel agency Travel Republic was yesterday found not guilty of breaching ATOL regulations. Charges brought by the Civil Aviation Authority alleged Travel Republic and managing director Kane Pirie sold package holidays without the necessary ATOL licence.
McEwan said the broader implications of the case added further weight to the need for reform to ensure all holidaymakers are financially protected. “From an Advantage point of view, this is a perfect opportunity to push forward on reform to ensure we have a much simpler form of protection in place for consumers. There should still be uniform protection for all consumers buying a holiday; that’s what we should strive for,” he said.
“Now we have got this ruling, it’s great in terms of protecting the business model of agents that operate in the same way as Travel Republic. But it still doesn’t solve the issue of consumer protection. As an industry we need to focus on customer protection and to reach a conclusion on recommendations that are consistent and fair to the industry. You cannot have part of the industry regulated and part not.”
McEwan, who is also ABTA chairman, welcomed the court ruling, held at Westminster Magistrates Court, for members of the Advantage travel agency consortium that operate similar business models. “We have a number of members who participate in the same market as Travel Republic, and have similar business models. Subject to whether the CAA appeals, this will now give them (members) comfort that the business models they are running are okay.”