Tui Travel has come under attack for continuing to send guests to a hotel at which hundreds of guests have allegedly suffered food poisoning since 2004.
Hundreds of legal claims have been made against Thomson by holidaymakers who stayed at the all-inclusive Riu resort at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.
In March Tui agreed to compensate 283 tourists who had begun legal proceedings after staying at the hotel in 2005 and 2006. Forty more customers have filed legal claims already this year, according to reports.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell, which has handled cases involving the hotel every year since 2004, criticised the operator saying vital lessons had not been learned.
A spokesman told The Sunday Times: “The stories from our clients are horrendous.
“It is deeply frustrating to see tour operators, Thomson in this case, appearing to fail to take sufficient action to improve standards.”
A Thomson spokesman said there had been 29 cases of reported illness at the resort this year, all between March 3-9.
He added: “Thomson can confirm that it has been contacted by a law firm that is seeking to profit from an unfortunate illness suffered by a small number of customers who stayed at the ClubHotel Riu Bachata, Dominican Republic, in March this year.
“Thomson has robust processes and preventative hygiene procedures in place at all its properties to ensure that the strictest health, safety and comfort levels are maintained.
“As soon as we became aware that some customers were becoming unwell, the company reacted immediately by providing assistance where required and implementing enhanced preventative hygiene procedures.
“Thomson also arranged for specialist consultants to conduct a thorough investigation, in collaboration with the hotel’s own health and safety experts.
“They concluded that this was an isolated sickness outbreak that was viral in nature and not due to any systematic breakdown of health and safety processes, food preparation practices or waste management within the hotel.”
The spokesman added: “The hotel is a very popular hotel and sickness levels at the resort have been minimal since 2006, when the hotel closed for refurbishment.
“We are confident that customers due to travel there in the future will experience the high levels of quality and standards they expect from a Thomson property.”