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Press Release

‘DIY’ holidays not covered by ATOL

6 March 2007

Holidaymakers who organise their own ‘DIY’ holidays aren’t necessarily covered if their tour operator goes bust, warns Holiday Which? magazine.

With more and more people booking each part of their holiday separately - rather than as a package from a travel agent – the number of holidaymakers financially protected by ATOL* if something goes wrong has fallen from 98 per cent** in 1997 to just 61 per cent in 2006.

Although, by law, package holidays including a flight must be ATOL protected, the same doesn’t apply to ‘DIY’ holidays, meaning travel agents can save themselves money by avoiding providing this protection on DIY holidays - even those that include a flight***.

The collapse of EUJet in July 2005, affecting almost 40,000 passengers, shows that this is a real concern. Tour operators could also use legal loopholes on ‘DIY’ holidays to avoid their responsibility for accommodation quality and injury during the holiday.

Mike Pedley, Principal Researcher, Holiday Which? magazine said:

“If a holiday operator goes bust, holidaymakers cannot assume that they will be able to get their money back.

“DIY holidays, whether booked online or through an agent, are not automatically protected. If you’re booking your summer holiday you must ask if it’s ATOL bonded or covered by an alternative protection scheme to ensure you’ll be looked after if anything should go wrong.”

Footnotes

*Under the Package Travel Regulations (PTR), financial protection is based on a package holiday that includes a flight. The Air Travel Organiser’s License (ATOL) requires tour operators to provide a bond to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which pays to refund or repatriate travellers if an operator goes bust

** Federation of Tour Operators

*** In 2006, the Association of British Tour Operators (ABTA) and the CAA disagreed over the definition of a ‘package’. The CAA said that travel agents who were selling DIY holidays that included a flight needed to pay for an ATOL, ABTA disagreed and in court ABTA were successful



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