The Department for Business and Trade will seek consumer views on financial protection to use alongside more than 150 industry responses as part of its Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) review.
Craig Belsham, assistant director for partnerships and the international consumer team at the DBT, told The Specialist Travel Association (Aito) AGM the government was “very keen to develop something that works for smaller businesses as well as larger ones.”
Belsham said the DBT, which is reviewing the PTRs, was “very pleased” to receive more than 150 responses to its call for evidence in September last year on proposals to reform the PTRs, the UK version of the existing Package Travel Directive.
He said: “We have had a lot of responses which provided a lot of informed input. We are analysing that and other information that we have got.
“We are looking to put some further advice to our ministers in the next six weeks or so with a view to issuing a government response to the call for evidence.”
But he said: “There is more to work to do. We want to supplement the information from the industry with more consumer information. That will go alongside the information you [the industry] has provided.”
Consumers will be asked about how important financial protection is in the holiday booking process.
Belsham admitted the review would take time, adding: “I am not going to promise a quick set of regulations.”