A leading travel industry lawyer has urged the government “not to throw the baby out with the bathwater” in a promised review of the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs).
Themis Advisory director Jo Kolatsis told the Abta Travel Law Seminar in London on Tuesday: “Covid tainted our view of the PTRs and how we react to disruption in the travel industry. We’re still living with the consequences.
“But Covid was extreme. We never had issues as an industry with refunds in past. My concern is Covid seems to be a driving force behind all this reform [of Atol and the PTRs].
“I hope they [the government] don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater because of a situation we hope never to see again.”
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The Department for Business and Trade [DBT] has promised a consultation on reform of the PTRs “shortly” after previously carrying out an informal review.
Kolatsis noted the requirement in PTRs to refund consumers within 14 days of a holiday cancellation “was a massive burden on everybody [during the pandemic], but we were obliged to do it”.
She suggested the DBT should consider a return to the requirement in the pre-2018 PTRs to refund consumers “as soon as possible”.
Kolatsis added: “We need clarification on Foreign Office advice. Do we rely on the Foreign Office advice as a trigger for refunds to consumers or not? This caused a lot of uncertainty [during the pandemic].”
She also noted the difficulties travel firms had obtaining refunds from airlines for the flight portion of cancelled holidays during the pandemic, saying: “Covid highlighted the divisions within the industry regulations. Airlines are under no obligation to comply with the PTRs [and to refund organisers].”
Kolatsis argued: “We need to bring these things together. We’re all part of one industry.”
However, she queried whether the government should look to remove UK domestic tourism from the PTRs, arguing: “It would create an unlevel playing field and feed the idea that the government cares less about the outbound sector.”
Deloitte Legal director Luke Golding warned travel businesses: “You could find yourself having to get to grips with Atol reform and then reform of the PTRs and constant change.
“If we can’t have one single piece of legislation, we could still have the legislative changes better aligned.”
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