I read with interest Harold Burke of UK Holiday Group’s letter to the trade [routeone/News/21 February].
Group Travel is a close neighbour of ours, so we’ve seen the effect of its failure without bonding or a trust account in place close at hand.
On an almost daily basis we’re getting calls from disappointed customers of Group Travel who thought their money would be safe.
I spoke to a lady who had five trips booked with them last year that were cancelled, so she stopped going with them. She says it took six weeks or more for the payments to be refunded to her – some she never got back.
How have they got away with it for so long, without someone checking up on them?
By my understanding, all literature has to clearly state the name of the trust account.
Also, the name ‘trust account’ means trustees have full control of the money, which cannot be released until the tour is completed. One of these must be totally independent of the directors or owners of the company operating the tour.
Looking at many of our competitors’ literature, I suspect that the latter is not the case.
Alan Phillips,
Phillips Travel, Bewdley
