13 Jul
2017

Mark Tanzer comments on the Government’s move to crackdown on false holiday sickness claims

I was delighted to see the Government announce last Sunday that it will be taking action to tackle false holiday sickness claims, reducing cash incentives to bring spurious claims against package holiday tour operators. The issue of fraudulent holiday sickness claims has hit our industry and, over the last year, with you our Members and other industry partners, we have worked hard to present a body of evidence to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) showing that whilst claims have increased by over 500%, there has been no corresponding rise in reported levels of sickness in resorts. Whilst we are very pleased that this has been recognised, our work does not stop here and we will continue to work with the Government to ensure that initial reforms happen as quickly as possible and to find a long-term solution to this problem.

We expect the Government to publish a Call for Evidence soon and I would urge all Members to respond. The evidence that we as an industry can offer is crucial in the fight against fraudulent claims and the Government announcement referenced the figures we provided. They aim to gather further robust data on the volumes and costs of claims which will help inform action to tackle the issue. We will share details of the Call for Evidence when available.

In the meantime, we continue our #StopSicknessScams campaign, making the public aware of the risks of making a fraudulent sickness claim and that fake claims could lead to higher prices or less choice for honest holidaymakers. We have launched two new videos today explaining this, which we will be sharing on social media and promoting using online advertising. I would encourage all Members to share the videos on their own social media channels and to support the #StopSicknessScams campaign wherever possible. You can find all of our social media assets at abta.com/marketingtoolkit.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive