The Civil Aviation Authority is to plough a further £400,000 into its campaign to help holidaymakers understand Atol protection after a major funding boost from government.
At this year’s Aito agents domestic conference, the CAA revealed it had just received £400,000 from the government, almost double the £220,000 spend on the current ‘Peace of Mind’ campaign.
“For a government advertising campaign it’s a huge amount of money,” said a CAA spokesman.
The funding will pay for additional digital and banner advertisements and videos, as well as press advertisements in national tabloid newspapers, PR and social media promotions.
The three-month-long campaign, which aims to make holidaymakers aware of the need for Atol certificates and understand financial protection, was seen by 4.5 million people between December 26 and January 3.
In that time, 22,000 people visited the packpeaceofmind.co.uk microsite and more than 100,000 viewed video advertisements on YouTube.
The advertisements and marketing materials produced for the campaign – which feature an image of the Atol certificate and an explanation of consumer protection – urge consumers to make sure they receive a certificate when they pay for their holiday and keep it safe before and during their trip.
Atol certificates were introduced in October last year as part of an overhaul of Atol which saw component holiday sales brought into the scheme for the first time under what is known as Flight-Plus.
Deputy director of the CAA’s Consumer Protection Group, David Moesli, said there had been fewer problems with the roll-out of the Atol certificate than expected.
He said: “There are one or two little issues and we are dealing with them but we were somewhat surprised that there have not been more problems with the introduction of it.”
Moesli added that the new system would improve clarity and make it easier to deal with failures.
He added: “We, as the CAA, have suffered [in the past] from failures where the paperwork was a disgrace, in some cases downright misleading.
“You have to have the proper certificates in place so everyone knows what is going on, so there is no doubt about who is taking responsibility.”