Unpackaged dangers
Anxiety is growing that the new travel industry trend towards unpackaging the package holiday will lead to confusion and disappointment among consumers.
The Civil Aviation Authority is pressing the Department of Trade and Industry to plug what threatens to become a dangerous hole in the safety net designed to ensure that holidaymakers are not left out of pocket when firms go bust.
The problem is partly a result of the rise of low-cost airlines. Worried that travellers are increasingly shopping around on the internet for cheap fares and rooms, some tour operators are selling accommodation and flights separately under "split contracts". This could leave travellers exposed. If they book a hotel through a tour operator which goes under, they could be stuck with useless air tickets. And, if the airline goes bust, they might not be able to get to the hotel or villa they had booked.
Operators point to the fact that no-frills airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair offer online links to hotel booking sites. They argue that while package tour firms are obliged by law to carry the cost of providing bonds to pay for the reimbursement or repatriation of customers, scheduled airlines are not.
The main concern among consumer-protection experts is that holidaymakers have been led to believe that whenever they book with a tour operator, their money is safe and that they will be brought home if a firm goes under while they are abroad. This is mainly because of the success of the ATOL (Air Tour Organisers Licence) system, under which it is illegal for air packages to be sold without providing bonds or other financial cover and, to some extent, the separate Package Holiday Regulations, which demand the same of firms offering holidays incorporating other forms of transport.
Under split contracts, travellers would be faced with a labyrinth of possibilities. If they booked accommodation-only with an operator belonging to ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) or AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators) they would not lose their money because those organisations insist that business not covered by an ATOL must also be bonded. Nor would they if they also bought a cheap charter seat. However, they will not be covered for the cost of their air tickets if they bought them from a scheduled airline which subsequently went out of business. Unless, that is, they had paid with a credit card and the transaction was over £100.
However, one tour operator, who is planning to publish a hotel-only brochure, points out that if customers buy insurance including cancellation cover, they would be reimbursed if they were prevented from taking up the accommodation because of an airline failure.
Off piste
Skiers going to North America like to spend time doing something other than skiing, wintersports specialist Inghams believes. Last winter, it offered short stopovers in Vancouver, and next season it is providing the option in five more cities: Denver, Salt Lake City, Boston, Calgary and Montreal. Three- or four-night stays cost from £49 per head. A spokeswoman says: "When customers go for two weeks, we find a significant number want to spend 10 nights' skiing and the rest seeing somewhere else, shopping or taking in a hockey game."
