Travel agents fear an “influx” of legal claims from holidaymakers who decide to travel this summer but find the experience isn’t what they paid for.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly Webcast, Phil Evans, owner of Cruise Nation in Swansea, warned there will be “sharks” in resorts this summer, targeting holidaymakers to make claims in order to “make a big buck”.
He said: “We don’t know yet what the new norm is going to be. But if you start changing that experience for people, they’re going to say, ‘well, this isn’t what I booked’.
“I think the real worry is if people who are going on package holidays get touted in resort by these insurance companies, saying ‘you’ve paid for this experience but have you had the experience you paid for?’
“Potentially that’s going open another can of worms. So we’re all interested in how it’s going to play out over the coming months.”
Likening the situation to the recent blight on the industry of holidaymakers being targeted in resort by people encouraging them to make false sickness claims, Evans added: “These people are out there. They’re like sharks. They’re looking for the next big buck. So it was PPI one year, then it was food sickness claims the next year, and now it’s something else. It’s any way of making money at the end of the day. So I envisage that we’re going to see an influx of that happening.”
Asked how he thought the industry could protect itself against the practice, Evans said agents needed to advise their customers that the experience was going to be different and get them to agree that they still wanted to proceed on that basis.
“I think if we’re doing our jobs, we should be actually ringing our customers and saying, right, just to pre-empt the situation, you are going to have limited meal times; you’re going to have to follow social distancing; so your experience is not going to be as per what you booked. It’s almost like you need that customer then to say, ‘Yes, I’m happy to proceed with a holiday’.”
Tony Mann, managing director of Idle Travel in Bradford, said: “It’s about educating and knowing what to expect. I’ve said [on the radio station that I appear on] for the last few weeks that travel is not going to be what it used to be. The hotel will only be partly full, so expect different meal times etc.
“It’s trying to explain this – and obviously it’s us knowing that and what to expect for our customers. I think more and more, there’s information out there to get people understanding that travel will have changed, whether that’s in the UK, or abroad. It’s definitely going to alter at the beginning.”
Agents also expect to be dealing with a growing number of queries from clients in the coming weeks who don’t feel comfortable travelling even if their holidays are due to go ahead.
Sue Alexander, director of Eagle Travel in Bedford, said: “With September holidays approaching, we have got people that have said they’re a little bit daunted about the idea of going this year.”
She said the majority of tour operators had done an excellent job of allowing customers to postpone to later dates, but said there may be some cases where airlines may not refund if their flights are operating.
“I think that with their flexible terms and conditions, we’ll still be okay to postpone and move them to another day but it’s a difficult one because a lot of the airlines will be operating.
“Luckily, the majority of the people that we’ve got in September are either hoping for the best, or they are looking to go next year [as opposed to cancel and wanting a refund].”
Evans added that he was “lucky” as a cruise specialist as the cruise lines are allowing customers to change up until 48 hours before.
“We are quite lucky in that respect. Obviously for ourselves, where we provide our own flights and hotels, we have insured against that, so we can actually still move the holiday should we wish to do so.”