Tour firms worried about negative false claims impact

Palma.—British tour industry leaders are urging the government to implement “simple changes” that do not require a parliamentary vote to speed up a resolution to the surge in holiday illness claims, as the boss of one consortium warned the high rise in such claims could put travel companies “out of business”.
The comments were made at the latest TTG Industry Leaders Forum last week, where Stephen D’Alfonso, Thomas Cook’s group head of public affairs, highlighted concerns about false holiday illness claims.
Cook, along with Tui, joined Abta earlier this month in delivering a letter to newly appointed justice secretary David Lidington, requesting a meeting to formally discuss potential law changes.
“Abta has launched a campaign and it was (about) putting aside commercial interests and competitiveness to work collaboratively where we can,” said D’Alfonso. “It’s shocking (this) is happening to the industry and there’s a potential (clause) that could change that.
“Potentially it would not take very long either. There were some good announcements made in the Queen’s Speech, but there are also some simple technical changes the government could make through secondary legislation that doesn’t need to be put through parliamentary vote.”