I met with the Justice Secretary, Liz Truss, to discuss the growing issue of fraudulent ‘gastric illness’ claims against holiday companies. While it is perfectly fair and reasonable for anyone who becomes ill on holiday to make a claim against a tour operator if their illness was the fault of food or sanitary conditions at their hotel, for example – there has been an alarming surge in claims that would suggest many of these claims are fraudulent.
It appears that while hotels in Spain and Turkey are full of holidaymakers from a range of countries, it is only the British customers who apparently become ill and then make a claim against the tour operator when they get home – often without any proof of illness. The Daily mail has claimed us the 'fake sick man of Europe' for this behaviour.
ABTA (the UKs largest travel association) have found evidence of claims management companies pro-actively handing out leaflets in holiday resorts and social media encouraging holiday makers to make a claim even if there justification for doing so is questionable.
The number of claims against tour operators has increased by more than 400% in the last 3 years and the additional costs including increased company insurance premiums will inevitably be passed on to the majority of honest holiday makers in the form of more expensive holidays. In addition, tour operators are now complaining that some hotels are now banning British holiday makers from their hotels, restricting the choice available to British holiday makers – and tainting our reputation for honest and fair play as a nation.
I will continue to lobby the government to investigate this issue. Certainly closer focus on the claims management companies involved seems to be in order. This issue has alarming similarities to the fraudulent whiplash claims drama – which increased the cost of insurance premiums for all of us.