The Latin American Travel Association has created a government petition to urge the government to temporarily suspend aspects of the Package Travel Regulations.
The association has lent its support to calls to relax demands on travel companies to give them a better chance of surviving the coronavirus crisis.
The petition calls for three temporary amendments, and is targeting 10,000 signatures to oblige the government to respond.
The three temporary amendments echo Abta’s Save Future Travel campaign and are:
- To remove the 14-day time limit for refund payments.
- To allow refund credits as an acceptable alternative to cash refunds, with all protections carried forward.
- To remove the responsibility for travel companies to provide refunds if these costs are not covered by the suppliers (e.g. the hotel or airline).
Danny Callaghan, Lata general manager, said: “The travel industry is doing everything it can to help customers but these Package Travel Regulations were not intended for mass holiday cancellations caused by a global pandemic.
“The scale of this crisis on our industry is unimaginable and government needs to act now to help protect thousands of jobs. We would urge our travel industry colleagues to get behind this petition which forces the government to respond if enough signatures are reached.”
On Wednesday, Aito Agents chair Gemma Antrobus received a response from former foreign sectary Jeremy Hunt who insisted the government was hoping to take action “as quickly as possible”.
Abta’s Save Future Travel campaign urges the travel industry to call on the government to take immediate action to avoid mass insolvencies across the sector, including a simple way for individuals to contact their MPs.
Sign the Lata petition here.