A travelling nightmare

STRANDED tourists, holiday dreams in ruins and fears that no compensation will be forthcoming. Once again a major British tour firm has gone into administration, cancelling flights and holidays. Majorca has seen all this before, the list unfortunately is long, Clarksons, Intasun and now XL. But the question has to be asked; what more can be done to safeguard the travelling public? The majority of people work all year round dreaming of their holiday in the sun; it is an absolute nightmare when it is cancelled because the tour firm involved has gone into administration. XL does have safeguards - it is bonded and other airlines will get its stranded passengers home. But this sometimes is not the point. As a result of higher fuel prices and the credit crunch the travel industry is suffering. Times are hard but perhaps the time has come for the government, both British and Spanish to introduce new safeguards which could further protect the travelling public. I don´t know what can be done or who can help but let us remember that when a travel company goes into administration it makes many people think twice about going abroad for their holidays. It is understandable but it is a nightmare scenario for the industry.