Holiday-makers reassured over MyTravel troubles

People who have booked holidays with troubled tour operator MyTravel were today warned not to panic, despite the company announcing losses of £910.9m (€1.3bn).

Holidaymakers are in no danger of losing their money because the former Airtours company, like all tour operators in Britain, is by law covered financially in the event of the company going under.

“MyTravel is bonded with both ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing) and Abta (the Association of British Travel Agents) and so they are financially protected,” said Keith Betton, Abta’s head of corporate affairs.

“Anything customers have paid will be protected by that.

“If they hadn’t travelled then they would get their money back and could just book again with someone else.

“If they were actually away at the time they could just carry on their holiday.

“The main thing to understand is that there is protection and you are not going to lose your money, so there is no need to panic.”

Mr Betton said the process of recovering money paid for a holiday in such a situation was not a complex one.

“It’s a straightforward thing, like making an insurance claim,” he said.

In the case of someone already on a holiday it was likely the tour reps would tell them what was happening and they could continue it without any problems.

Mr Betton added that as MyTravel has several trading names, some holidaymakers might not realise initially that they could be affected.

It owns the Going Places agency and has a number of tour operators including Panorama, Manos, Bridge Travel, Cresta and Tradewinds.