The tourism industry in the UK and the Foreign Office have gone to some lengths to try and explain to holidaymakers that they run the risk of prosecution if they make fraudulent claims. The claims' farmers seek to convince holidaymakers that there is no risk.
The Stop Sickness Scams campaign, which has the backing of the main tour operators - Tui, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Monarch - has achieved something, as have letters sent by tour operators to clients or to law firms that have been making claims against hotels. Earlier in the summer Tui said that it had succeeded in stopping a number of claims. Thomas Cook now says that it has deterred around 3,000. The tour operator admits, however, that there is still a long way to go in stamping out the illegal practice.
The total amounts of these claims do tend to vary, but the Spanish confederation of hotel associations calculates that in the whole of Spain last year the figure was some 100 million euros. The Balearic tourism minister, Biel Barceló, said earlier this year that the figure for the Balearics was 50 million euros. Whatever the true figure is, it is known that one hotel complex - Club Mac in Alcudia - was presented with around four million euros worth of claims for 2016. The owners have pursued this with the National Police, who are said to have connected one particular operation in Majorca to the Club Mac claims.
Abta is again warning that the cost of holidays could increase in the long term because of the claims. Perhaps this is already the case, given some prices that are being quoted for 2018.
