27/06/2017
A 500% increase in the number of food sickness compensation claims lodged by British holiday makers since 2013 has created a situation where the future of all-in package holidays is actually under threat, warns the Association of British Travel Agents.
Driven by a toxic combination of touts and claims management companies, tens of thousands of compensation claims were made last year alone. However, reported sickness levels in resorts have remained stable and the claims are associated only with British holidaymakers.
With the support of members and partners from across the UK travel industry, ABTA has responded by launching ‘Stop Sickness Scams’ – a multi-faceted campaign to lobby government and persuade consumers to play their respective parts in cracking down on a practice that is trashing Britain’s reputation abroad.
ABTA believes that the surge in travel sickness activity has been fuelled by legislation introduced to halt the equally rampant increase in fraudulent whiplash claims by capping the legal fees that law firms can charge when pursuing personal injury cases.
As this cap does not apply to incidents occurring overseas, claims management companies have simply switched the focus of their money-making scams from motorists in Britain to tourists abroad.
Extraordinarily, British law also allows tourists to make food poisoning claims up to 3 years after a holiday, with no particular evidence required. Typically, compensation of up to £2,000 per person is paid, with lawyers able to recover their legal fees from the defendants.
The ABTA campaign includes
- a letter to the new Justice Secretary, David Lidington, reiterating the industry’s call to bring holiday sickness claims within a fixed cost regime
- the development of a shareable, online tool to make it easy for ABTA members and the public to contact their MPs about the situation
- multi-channel consumer activity, including the use of a #Stop SicknessScams hashtag to counteract misleading claims management company advertisements
- calls to action aimed at the travelling public, including a request for them to report touts to hotel managers/tour operators