Comment: Travel industry must work together to stamp out fraud – 15 Mar 2007

Fraud is a huge problem for all industries, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. It is a dirty word – no business wants to admit the extent of fraud it suffers for the simple reason consumers may lose confidence in any business that is seen to be regularly defrauded.

This week, the travel industry is breaking its silence on the issue with the launch of our Stamp Out Fraud campaign. Travel Weekly has joined forces with an industry-wide anti-fraud group to help raise awareness of the issue.

For 10 years the group, made up of ABTA, the Civil Aviation Authority, Global Travel Group, Metropolitan Police, International Air Transport Association, the Travel Trust Association and Teletext has been meeting to share information and come up with way to help the trade to beat the fraudsters. This week the group is going public with one aim – to help the trade stamp out fraud.

But this group cannot do this alone. It needs the trade to help.

It is difficult to put a cost on fraud. Very conservative estimates suggests it costs the trade directly £6m a year, but this is potentially only the tip of the iceberg. This week a survey from banking trade body APACS revealed that card fraud against the travel industry stood at £24 million last year – that is the cost to the card companies, but it provides an idea of the scale of the problem.

What is certain is that fraud costs the livelihoods of travel professionals and tarnishes the reputation of the industry as a whole – which is why we must fight it together.

We are kicking off the campaign now as Easter is just around the corner and fraudsters target peak holiday times. So, now is the time for all travel professionals to start to understand the type of fraud that is committed, how to detect it and what to do if you suspect fraud is taking place.

The anti-fraud group has teamed up with Travel Weekly to provide practical advice on how to beat fraud and over the coming weeks we will be featuring a range of articles and initiatives to help the trade. For a range of resources visit our campaign homepage at Travelweekly.co.uk/fraud.

Let’s work together to Stamp Out Fraud.