Abta: Don't worry about collapses in market

Abta: Don't worry about collapses in market

The financial downturn has touched virtually every sector and industry in the UK and the travel and holiday market has not been spared either, with travellers in most cases severely inconvenienced when companies succumb to the downturn.

Since the downturn came into town, travel operators, including major ones like XL Holidays, have been forced to call in administrators after going bust, leaving thousands of holidaymakers inconvenienced.

Despite this, Abta - The Travel association, says consumers should not have sleepless nights over such incidences because there are measures to ensure they are protected.

The latest holiday industry casualty is Freedom Direct, which traded online under Freedomdirect.co.uk, Freedom-direct.co.uk, Snowdeals.co.uk and Holidaysyoulike.co.uk.

Nearly 9,000 bookings have been affected by the collapse of the company, which was made public in a statement on April 16th. Some 109 jobs also went down the drain.

The statement from the company said that "passengers who have booked a holiday with Freedom Direct Holidays Ltd are fully financially protected" because the firm operated as a full member of Abta and the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL).

In the same breadth, travellers who had made a package holiday booking with Freedom Direct Holidays Ltd "are bonded under ATOL number 9740, and are advised to contact the CAA" on 0207 453 6350, the statement added.

"All customers who have booked a flight, accommodation or a package holiday with any ATOL bonded company, with an ATOL number other than 9740, are advised to contact ABTA on 01243 621500," concluded the statement.

The statement, signed by the group's chief executive officer Martin Jones, also went on to offer apologies "for any inconvenience caused", and thanked the public for support over the last 12 years.

Such disruptions need not concern travellers, according to Abta's spokesperson Frances Tuke, who said that in the current environment, the continuing collapse of travel firms was to be expected.

"We get failures no matter what the economic climate, and in a recession every company is that little more vulnerable," she explained, adding that "there are going to be failures this year and over the last couple of years we've actually seen a steadying off of failures".

Saying the development was "not that alarming", Ms Tuke went on to refer to last September's collapse of XL Holidays, which she termed "a very big failure", asserting that "a failure of that magnitude" happens once in every ten years.

However, they do highlight the importance of one thing - financial protection, Ms Tuke said.

Stating that there are "regimes in place" to protect consumers, she said it is vital for travellers to ask for such protection when booking a holiday, which should be possible through all Abta members.

"Not everyone books a package holiday and not all travel elements are necessarily and automatically covered, so you need to find out whether yours is," she advised.