British tourists suffer funny tummies

BANGKOK British tourists are getting a bad name for cheating their tour operators with false claim that they were served spoiled food during their tour.

TravelNews Switzerland noted in a news report, earlier this week, that tour operators such as Thomas Cook were confronted with the problem of “thousands of British vacationers claiming compensation”.

Most of the complaints related to the quality of food that they consumed during the package tour holiday.

They claimed it was spoiled. It mainly impacts on full-board or half-board holiday packages.

Most of the complaints concerned food hygiene in the Mediterranean, and British travel firms believe they were victims of fraudulent claims.

There are even firms that specialise in filing complaints regarding unhygienic food on behalf of UK travellers. They organise complaints over alleged illness that are filed against the travel company responsible for booking the hotel stay for customers.

The UK newspaper Mail on Sunday identified one of the complaint firms, “Sick Holiday,” that apparently promises to secure damages of up to UKP40,000.

SickHolday.com quotes the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. The UK law stipulates that complaints are  possible up to three years after the holiday has been completed. SickHoliday is staffed by claim lawyers who adopt the no-win, no-pay formula and actively  encourage travellers to explore if they  are eligible for a claim against a tour operator.   The law applies to package tours only that include two more more travel components. Tour operators may hide, or separate, features of a booking itinerary to avoid the definition that could lead to legal claims if  there a health problem occurs during the trip. The burden of proof lies with the accused.

TravelNews said Thomas Cook has been hit by a massive increase in lawsuits.

Thomas Cook’s Switzerland CEO, Peter Fankhauser, was quoted by the “Mail on Sunday” : “We are recording an explosion of claims for such alleged diseases in the United Kingdom.”

Most of the spoiled food complaints focus on hotels in Mallorca. However the law applies to holiday packages  featuring destinations, worldwide. sold by a  UK-based tour operator.

Event if lawyers win compensation, tour operators often demand that hotels pay back the claim amount under threat that they could  lose their contracts for new bookings. But there has been a backlash as resorts in Turkey  threatened to terminate their contracts with British tour operators.

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