NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY’S FIGHT FAKE CLAIMS CAMPAIGN
Fight Fake Claims: Campaign garners widespread support in its first week. Ben Ireland reports
Campaign wins backing of travel industry
Travel companies have been quick to endorse Travel Weekly’s Fight Fake Claims campaign, with 71 businesses lending their support. Industry giants Tui Group, Thomas Cook and Jet2holidays, which backed us at launch, have led the signatories, alongside some high street agents, bed banks, insurance companies and smaller operators. As Travel Weekly went to press, a further 116 individuals had also signed in a personal capacity, which means the campaign has already been backed by more than 52,000 people in its first week. Here are just some of the companies that have registered their support so far:
l Tui Group l Thomas Cook l Jet2holidays l Monarch l Advantage Travel Partnership l The Midcounties Co-operative l The Global Travel Group l Freedom Travel Group l Airport Travel l Airworld Tours l AmaWaterways UK l Aqua Mirage Club Marrakech l Asia Pacific Travel l Barrhead Travel l Blue Bay Travel l British Airways Holidays l CI Travel Group l Citrus Holidays l Clarity l Cosmos l CT Travel Group l Cyplon Holidays l Dawson & Sanderson l DialAFlight
l Endsleigh Insurance Services l Getabed l Hill Dickinson l The Holiday and Flight Centre l
Letsgo2.com l Loveholidays l Majestic Palace Hotel, Italy l Marelen Hotel l Miles Morgan Travel l Orbital Travel l OTS/MTS Globe l Proyectos Urbanisticos, Majorca l Purple Travel l Ramsay World Travel l Red Sea Holidays l Resort Marketing International l Spitfire Travel l Sunvil Holidays l Tangney Tours l Tourama l Travel Link Morocco l Travel Solutions of Belfast l Travlaw l Your Golf Travel
Back our campaign! Sign as a business or individual at:
surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FightFakeClaims
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travelweekly.co.uk 15 June 2017
Midcounties: Ca claims via socia
Operators and agencies creating dynamic packages should keep a record of customers’ social media postings if they suspect gastric illness claims made against them are false.
The Midcounties Co-operative
Travel told Travel Weekly that it had begun to build up files of evidence about suspected fraudulent claimants, having backed our Fight Fake Claims campaign – launched last week. Group general manager of travel services Alistair Rowland and head of governance and risk Richard Simpson said the firm had seen a 1,000% increase in claims since 2013 from customers purporting to have been ill on holiday. Rowland said that although the 100 or so ongoing claims made against Midcounties was a small number in comparison to the larger tour operators, it was still “significant enough to fundamentally change our plans”. He said: “In the last 12 months we’ve seen a really big increase.”
Midcounties has taken the decision to dispute all the claims it believes to be false. Although more than 100 claims are still active, none have been paid out yet or gone as far as court. Simpson said: “We are seeing
all the same companies [putting the claims in] and all the same solicitors are involved. Every claim is for gastric illness; all are three days after the customers arrived; and they are all happening at places where you can stay all-inclusive.” Midcounties is urging agencies
that dynamically package and smaller operators to take the same stance and not pay out when they suspect claims are false, despite the risk of pricey court costs and the temptation to settle early for less.
“Quite a few have dropped their claims – they can’t prove what we’re asking them to”
CLAIMS FIGHT
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