CONFUSION REIGNS OVER FINANCIAL PROTECTION
Date published: 06 October 2008Fifty-eight per cent of respondents to the ABTA Holiday Survey conducted by Ipsos MORI have said that they were not aware, didn’t know or couldn’t remember if financial protection was included or not in their last holiday they booked. Yet 82 per cent agreed that it was important that their travel arrangements are financially protected.
Only nine per cent of respondents were aware that financial protection was NOT included for the travel arrangements they bought and of those, a fifth [19 per cent] then went onto complete the transaction anyway, while 76 per cent said that they arranged their own specialised travel insurance policies.
There are only a limited number of specialised insurance policies covering the failure of airlines or travel companies, and ABTA Members, who are able to guide customers through the complex issues, do sell them to cover travel elements not protected under existing schemes.
In addition 85 per cent of holidaymakers who were aware of ABTA said that it was important that their travel company they booked with was an ABTA Member.
Mark Tanzer, ABTA Chief Executive commented: “It’s not surprising consumers are unclear about financial protection for holidays. The area is incredibly complicated. The law governing the financial protection of holidays is now outdated, and the way we all buy holidays has changed massively over the past few years. We can see from this survey, that there is clearly a gap in people’s desire to be protected, and actually being protected. Either travellers assume cover is included or they don’t want to spend the time getting tangled up in that level of detail. We have been lobbying government in the UK and in Europe to change legislation, but so far there has been no change, that’s why in the meantime, travellers should book with ABTA Members, who can provide them with financial protection and a high standard of service.”
For further information
Sean Tipton, Communications Officer, tel: 020 7307 1902/1900Frances Tuke, Public Relations Manager, tel: 020 7307 1903/1900
Casia Zajac, Head of Communications, tel: 020 7307 1987
Mobile: 07894 073010
Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Notes to editors
This press release refers to questions: 13a, 13b, 13c, 14, 18.
ABTA commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct the 2008 British Holiday Survey. Ipsos MORI interviewed 702 respondents, by telephone using a Random Digit Dial method, between 2 and 14 September 2008. All respondents had to either have been on or booked an overseas holiday during the last 12 months to qualify to take part. Data has been weighed on gender, age, social class and region to reflect the GB population as a whole.
Where results do not add up to 100%, this is due to multiple response answers, computer rounding or the exclusion of don’t know/not stated answers.
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ABTA was founded in 1950 and currently has over 1,500 members with 6,000 outlets. Members include travel agents, tour operators and support services right across the spectrum from small family-owned businesses to the largest tour operators.
ABTA is the largest travel association in the UK and its members provide 90% of the foreign package holidays in the UK as well as selling millions of independent travel arrangements.
As part of its comprehensive package of services to members, ABTA, as a non-party political organisation, also provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its Members to government and key opinion formers at the highest levels. In the UK, these include, government ministers, constituency MPs, Select Committee members, senior civil servants and members of the political opposition parties in both Westminster and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In Europe, ABTA is forming close ties with members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and staff within the Director Generals’ Secretariats. ABTA works in partnership with ECTAA (the European grouping of travel agents and tour operators’ associations) to lobby on interests relevant to its Members.
