An afternoon presentation at the British Tourism & Travel Show on 19 March by Matt Gatenby, Senior Partner at Travlaw Legal Services, offered an update on amendments to the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations (2018), introduced in March.
The changes appear modest for coach tour operators but there are implications. Primarily that is a strengthening of organisers’ rights to recover costs from suppliers if trips fail – i.e. if a hotel cannot accommodate a booking, or a supplier can no longer provide a vehicle or driver.
The logic is to reduce the burden of cost recovery on small businesses and offer more protections for operators exposed to last-minute cancellations or failures.
The reality is that liability still sits firmly with the tour operator: if a supplier fails, it is the operator, not the hotel or contractor, that must refund or re-accommodate the customer, often at a higher cost when short-term alternate arrangements are necessary. Legal tweaks improve the position for recovery on paper, but Matt notes that, without contractual arrangements, doing so easily is still not guaranteed.
In that sense contracts would make the biggest difference, though Matt notes that may put off suppliers that have long relied on informal or longstanding relationships. However, formalising those relationships may be increasingly important if the industry faces further supply challenges.
