Tour operators

Last night I received an email from Mexican ecotourism pioneer Marlene Ehrenberg Enríquez, whom I count as a friend.

Marlene is exasperated having suffered from repeated tour cancellations from German tour companies, including this one.

For example, a complete ten-day tour of Mexico (arranged in June 2005) has just been cancelled in its entirety, despite only two itinerary days scheduled to be spent on the Mexican Caribbean - and in Playa del Carmen of all places, which is 99 per cent back to its pre-Wilma state.

Marlene has sent an appeal to the Mexico Tourism Board: tell ‘em the real story next week in Berlin, where the humongous International Tourism Fair begins on March 8th.

The issue is more than academic; in 2005, the Riviera Maya received 2.76m visitors, of whom 30 per cent (663,000) were Europeans - principally from Spain, Italy, the UK, France and Germany (in that order).

On average, Europeans stay in the …

In December I wrote of the tempest some holidaymakers’ unleashed against tour operators over their treatment before and after Hurricane Wilma.

Today, TravelMole reports that in the UK, the big operators face a group action "claiming they should not have been flown to Mexico in the first place and that once Wilma struck, not enough was done to help."

Solicitors Alexander Harris are representing (according to The Times) 284 customers who travelled to Cancún with MyTravel, Thomas Cook, Thomson, First Choice and Cosmos.

The number of claims for compensation rose sharply after the story was highlighted on ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme last month.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case, it’s clear that the operators didn’t do enough over ensuing months to fend off the criticisms and will now have to argue their case in court.

Journalist Jane Engle asked Susan Tanzman, the American Society of Travel Agents ‘2005 Travel Agent of the Year’ what she sees for travel in 2006. Here’s an excerpt from their December 19th chat:

Regarding the Caribbean, what do you see as the effect in 2006 of the severe weather that we’ve had in some of the coastal resort areas?

Do I think Cancún and the Riviera Maya are going to bounce back? Yes, I don’t have any doubt they will. But the issue is: What’s the consumer going to do? - January 1st

Almost two months on from Hurricane Wilma, it’s interesting to reflect on the experiences of some of the estimated 8,500 British tourists who had booked their holiday with a tour operator and who were in and around Cancún at the time Wilma struck.

The Times (London) has published a selection of their emails and subsequent attempts to get adequate refunds. The messages suggest that some of the big names in travel need to face up to some unpalatable truths:  Will I get a refund because of Wilma?

For example, Dianne Taylor (Lincoln, UK) wrote "we will never use Thomas Cook again. The hurricane was a natural disaster but our holiday was ruined by Thomas Cook’s handling of the situation."

William Metcalfe lays into another giant, Thomson: "They knew about the hurricane the day they flew us out but still took us. Even 12 hours before it hit Cancun they didn’t evacuate us. I will never travel with Thomson again." …