Over the weekend you may have seen news coverage of our Holiday Fraud Awareness campaign, which is intended to educate the public about the dangers of holiday fraud and highlight the importance of booking with reputable travel firms.

Some of the common frauds that occurred last year included people paying by direct bank transfers for private rental villas that were never booked or were non-existent. As well as being a massive loss for the victims, incidents of fraud negatively impact consumer confidence in the whole industry and we are keen to stamp them out. We have run the campaign for the last three few years in partnership with The City Of London Police and Get Safe Online. 

This year was the most successful yet with detailed coverage in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Guardian, Independent and Daily Mail as well as around 100 articles online. On Sunday it was also one of the lead stories on BBC Online and an ABTA spokesperson was interviewed on BBC Breakfast, Sky Sunrise, BBC Radio 5 and LBC. The story has also been shared extensively on social media. Judging by past experience, we expect the campaign advice and statistics to be used throughout the year to continue to educate the public about the importance of doing their research and booking with reputable companies.

Read the campaign press release

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive