What happened to ABTA’s protection?
By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005

Have you heard that when you book a package holiday, you are protected by ABTA, so if you are travelling to a country and come into problems they are supposed to put all the stops out to support you. This means that any company that is a ABTA member, will ensure that they provide you consise and accurate information whilst booking your holiday.

Can someone tell me why then that there are no hurricane information warnings in 3 out of 5 brochures, and I visited three travel agents this afternoon, and only one travel agent gave me information about the hurricanes in Florida. The other two travel agents, I had to ask for further information on the current situation.

Due to legal reasons I can’t divulge the company names, but they are all high street travel agents based in Leeds, UK. It appears to me that they would rather take your money from you and not put you off travelling - hey, think of the commission for the travel agent! Okay, I’m been cynical, but seriously, why aren’t there more information in brochures?

BBC news quote “Up to nine thousand Britons are thought still stranded in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, up to five days after seeking shelter from Hurricane Wilma” Terry Preece, of Cardiff, told BBC Radio Five Live on Tuesday that he was among a group of holidaymakers now sleeping in the street in Cancun, Mexico. “There’s 56 of us stuck out in a street in downtown Cancun, women and children up on the roof, elderly people, and we’re out in the street basically, and we’re all really stressed out,” he said.

As I am typing this I am listening on BBC news that some travellers (one lady interviewee) has gone for five days without any food. Okay, can someone tell me if this the sort of support that UK (or any nationality) holidaymakers deserve?


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One Response to “What happened to ABTA’s protection?”

carolmc | 26 October, 2005 at 5:48 am

You are quite right - they deserve better!! Bearing in mind that most would have travelled with a Tour Operator - I doubt they are all “independent travellers”,it appears as if they have been dumped. We had a similar situation one year in Florida - many moons ago when we used travel with a Tour Operator. A hurricane was forecast to hit Ft Lauderdale so we were evacuated to Orlando.

A room had been booked for us, fair enough, but we had to “pick up the tab” - and some folks did not have enough money so stayed in hotel car parks. This was close to the end of our holiday - so we were lucky to have money left, but it cost us an extra $1500 which was not covered by the very insurance the Tour Operator insisted we take!! Needless to say, this was our last outing with a Tour Operator.

I’ll bet there are loads of tourists who will find themselves in the same boat. Disgraceful that people should be left to fend for themselves.