ttglive.com In brief
■ Aito agents see an 11% increase in sales Sales through Aito agents jumped 11% last month compared with January 2010. The increase was revealed in a survey of members of the Aito Specialist Travel Agents group, whose chairman, Oliver Broad, said the rise represented increased interest from customers in unbiased advice.
■ Ash cloud ruling could spark claims rush Insurers could face a flood of payouts for ash cloud compensation after a customer won a legal battle that the disruption could be classed as “weather related”. The victory in the small claims court is set to be used by the Financial Ombuds- man Service in talks with insurance underwrit- ers covering claims by hundreds of customers.
■ Merlin plans Legoland attraction in Atlanta Merlin Entertainments has announced conditional plans to build a $12 million Legoland Discovery Center to open in spring 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. The attraction at the Phipps Plaza will include a 4D cinema, rides, Lego model-making classes and a Miniland exhibit designed to reflect real-life skylines. ■ Merlin VAT protest, p12
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Billy Bear drops in to edit TTG
HE MAY be more used to rounding up groups of children at Butlins’ holiday parks, but Billy Bear certainly put the editorial team through its paces when he chaired our team meeting this week. Billy put in his stint as guest editor of this
week’sTTG dressed in an outfit that mirrors the new Redcoat uniform introduced by Butlins this week to celebrate its 75th anniversary. For the anniversary year of 2011, all Butlins
Redcoats will be wearing the new look inspired by the original 1936 uniform, including a replica of the original Butlins embroidered badge.
You can count on it: Billy’s got his mucky paws all over this week’s issue of TTG– but how many paw prints can you spot? The first three readers to email
dpearce@ttglive.com with the correct answer will receive a toy Billy Bear and a £25 high street shopping voucher. Usual competition rules apply.
18.02.2011 05
news
Insurers quiz operators ahead of Atol renewals
Rob Gill. THE TOP 50 Atol-holding tour operators are being individually “risk assessed” by insurers this month as the CAA looks to renew a key £300 million insurance policy. The CAA’s insurance policy with two insurance firms, including Chartis (formerly AIG UK), for the Air Travel Trust Fund has to be renewed by the end of March. And Chartis and the CAA are holding “in-depth”
interviews with major operators in February. Sources said the interviews could be a “big
issue” for some companies due to renew their Atol in March particularly if insurers were not happy with elements of their businesses. They said this could lead to some operators
being required to take out bonds or having other restrictions placed on them. At least one company interviewed said the tough questioning made the system feel more like the old bond arrangements before the Atol Protection Contribution system introduced in 2008 that was designed to make the procedure less onerous.
Alex Stoyanov, managing director of Balkan
Holidays, said his firm had been interviewed by the CAA and two insurance companies this week. “This was like going back to the old days when we had the bond system,” he said. “Since APC was introduced we have just met with the CAA which was more straightforward. “The insurers wanted to know how the business was doing including our bookings, plans and cashflow. I can understand why they want this information if they are going to insure the scheme.”
Alan Bowen, legal advisor to the Association
of Atol Companies, said AIG (now Chartis) carried out a similar exercise in 2008 before it started the previous period as insurers for the ATTF. However, he added that it was doing the top 50 now to get as wide a possible spread of companies so it could gauge the risks involved across the market as a whole. The insurance policy provides the ATTF with access to funds to cover the failure of a major Atol holder where the costs of refunds and repatriation will exceed £50 million per year.
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