Europe’s Travel Agents Concerned About Passenger and Package Traveler Rights Revisions

Photo Source: European Commission – Audiovisual Service

Travel agents and tour operators in Europe are expressing their concerns about the ongoing revision of the Package Travel Directive (PTD) scheduled to be released next month and the new framework for passenger rights protection.

More specifically, in view of potential adverse effects of PTD initiatives on smaller businesses, the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA) is urging the European Commission to discuss concerns and explore alternative solutions.

 “Unfortunately, over the past months the lack of political ambition and diverging objectives of the directorates general have become clear, jeopardizing the potential for meaningful reform,” said ECTAA President Frank Oostdam in a letter this week to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and commissioners Adina Valean and Didier Reynders.

According to ECTAA, revisions appear to be leaning toward imposing minimal obligations on airlines and introducing more stringent requirements for travel agents and tour operators.

Travel intermediaries, reads the letter, are concerned about the intention to introduce a limitation of pre-payments in the forthcoming revision of the PTD, specifically aimed at package organizers.

ECTAA said this is “unnecessary, as the current directive already provides significant safeguards for travelers in the event of package organizers’ insolvency”.

However, the upcoming review of the passenger rights framework will lack corresponding measures as no limitation of prepayment is foreseen nor is protecting passengers’ payments against airline insolvency.

“The lack of coordination and concerted efforts on these two important initiatives is a missed opportunity and the discrepancies between the two revisions under consideration will only exacerbate the existing fragmentations,” said ECTAA, warning that an “imbalanced approach could erode a level playing field in the travel industry and ultimately harm consumers by reducing the availability of travel packages due to new burdensome, onerous obligations for organizers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises”.