Safeguards for online holiday bookings

TOURISTS who book their holidays over the internet rather than using a travel agency are to get new consumer protections as a result of an overhaul of existing EU legislation.

EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, announced yesterday that people who book holidays over the internet could look forward to additional safeguards following a major review of the EU Package Travel Directive due to take place this autumn.

Ms Kuneva said she had ordered the initiative on the basis that existing EU consumer legislation did not reflect changes in the marketplace over the two decades.

Speaking in Galway at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland, Ms Kuneva said she sympathised with consumers who found it incomprehensible that two tourists using the same plane and the same hotel could have totally different levels of consumer protection simply because of how their bookings were made in different ways.

Ms Kuneva said the current level of holiday protection was a lottery, dependent on how the different elements of the holiday were put together.

She said she was concerned that the number of consumers covered by very tough holiday protection laws was actually decreasing, despite advances in technology.

Ms Kuneva said the current legislation offering holiday protection to consumers was put in place in the 1990s, when two-week packages booked through a travel agency was the norm.

It provides protection for package holidays, including clear information on offers, rights for cancellation of holidays and redress for poor standards and insolvency.

However, she noted foreign travel had been transformed in recent years, with many holidaymakers now directly booking their travel and accommodation over the internet.

She pointed out that 56% of all EU citizens and 46% of Irish people now organised their own holidays rather than use a travel agency or tour operator.

“With millions of people putting together their own holidays, many consumers are falling outside the basic package travel law and sometimes left badly exposed,” said Bulgaria’s first-ever EU Commissioner. “The status quo is not good enough. Europe’s consumers are not getting the protection they deserve.”

However, Ms Kuneva acknowledged that the issue was complex. “We will need to work hard to strike the right balance so that unnecessary costs are not imposed on industry during these difficult economic times.”

The European Commission is also concerned that may consumers are not aware their legal protection differs depending on how they booked their holiday.

The collapse of several charter airlines like XL, Futura and Zoom highlighted the need for consumer protections, said Ms Kuneva.