§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Fitch.]
§ 11.38 p.m.
§ Mr. Hugh D. Brown (Glasgow, Provan)The last time I was fortunate enough to secure an Adjournment debate it followed some Committee stage proceedings on the Finance Bill and began at 5.30 a.m. On that occasion I remember saying that one of the reasons why some Members were present was that they were waiting for the first tube train. If we hurry tonight, we might be lucky enough to catch the last tube train, as there are no taxis running.
The subject I intended to raise originally was the affairs of the Spain Only Travel Agency, but this is now a matter of general interest. I must pay tribute especially to the hon. and learned Member for Surrey, East (Mr. Doughty) and to my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth (Mr. Milne). I am sorry that my hon. Friend has not been able to advise me on some of his experiences. He is in hospital. I am sure that we all wish him a speedy recovery. Nevertheless, I know that this is a matter of general public interest.
What I have to say will not be responsible for any shaking of confidence in the £, and it will not really shatter confidence in the travel agencies. However, I want to be quite critical in one or two respects.
To refer to Spain Only, I accept the Ruling that, because a petition is being presented in the High Court, I cannot deal with the affairs of that company. I would just ask my right hon. Friend to watch the position, and, when the time is appropriate to raise the affair, I am sure that there will be a certain amount of interest from hon. Members who have had experience of it.
I should certainly like to mention how indebted many members of the public are to Hotel Plan, which stepped in with a rescue operation. It should also be pointed out that there was no official action by A.B.T.A. or T.T.A. in attempting any rescue operation.
The public are quite rightly concerned about the defaults of travel agents. I can refer to the case of Rentavilla, 1419 where, again, we have had conflicting stories about a firm going out of existence and someone else trying to do a rescue operation. But, somewhere along the line, members of the public are losing money or holidays and, in many cases, both.
We have had evidence today of another kind of racket in the Costa Cabana Beach Club type of selling up of holiday villas. I may say that members of the public in Glasgow seem to have had more than their fair share of disappointment in the past as a result of the well known tragedies of Fiesta, Omar Khayyam, and English and Overseas Tours, to name but a few.
Rumours are dangerous, and all agencies must be on the alert when any agency, whether a member of an association or not, destroys the image which they would like to assume of being responsible and able to give a service to the public. It is not good enough for recognised travel agencies to wash their hands completely of those agents and agencies who are not allowed into the proper organisations.
I agree that this must present a problem to all of us in the sense that the eternal dilemma of how much competition is good and how much monopoly is good has to be faced up to by any one of us who is critical of the present situation. Somewhere along the line there needs to be a greater awareness created of the responsibility for giving greater protection to the customer and to the consumer.
Not being able to refer to the one travel agency about which I had accumulated a fair amount of information, I have to deal with general matters, and it is much more difficult to get the information which one requires from the experiences of members of the public. But I have the uneasy feeling that there are more complaints than we hear about, for the simple reason that people are generally unaware of how to go about getting redress for disappointment or letdown when dealing with a private travel agency. Therefore, perhaps a wave of publicity or a breath of air on this subject might unearth more information or evidence of the depth of the problem.
I want to quote two cases of which have knowledge, both concerning reputable 1420 travel agencies. In the first, a person booking on behalf of six people went into a travel agency with a brochure on 2nd September, 1965. The travel agency was Lewis's, in Glasgow, and the holiday firm was Silver Wing Holidays. The party made the legitimate request for a certain holiday advertised in the brochure at an agreed price, to fly from Glasgow and to return to Glasgow. A normal deposit of £3 per person, or a total of £18, was paid on 2nd September.
On 15th February, 1966, they received another communication from the agency stating that it could not give them what they ordered on 2nd September. This seems incredible. Any Minister who attempted in this House to justify a delay of that nature in dealing with a claim for, say, National Insurance or for the provision of telephone service would be in an extremely difficult position.
In the second case, a party of two wanted to book a holiday, again in Jersey—I do not know whether there is a peculiar problem about Jersey—and booked with the Scottish Express Travel Agency. They paid the same deposit on 15th January this year. Not until three months later did they get word that this holiday, which they had been assured was available to them at the price quoted, was simply "not on".
This kind of thing seems to me to be rather unfortunate. I know that there are difficulties, but I would like to be assured, if possible, that this is not a common experience. I have a horrible feeling that there is more of it than one hears about. I am concerned because one can appreciate the disappointment of people at this kind of treatment.
In one of the cases which I have raised, in spite of the fact that the six people were told that little or nothing could be done about it, as soon as the agency people heard that I was raising the subject—I advised a constituent to let them know of this—within half an hour they telephoned back to say that they might be able to do something for the customers. I admit frankly to being guilty of a wee bit of blackmail here, but sometimes one can justify it; but it does not help the reputation of the agency.
There is one other point which I want to mention, and perhaps this, again, is a Glasgow experience. Many Glasgow 1421 people have a warm regard for Blackpool. It is a matter of opinion. I shall certainly not say anything detrimental about Blackpool. It so happened that last week two groups of people, one of five people and the other of six, who booked through the same agent to travel on the same coach, were advised that the hotel or boardinghouse in which they had hooked had been sold. Their deposits were returned and they were told that there was no accommodation for them.
This is the kind of treatment that certainly does not enhance the reputation of a town like Blackpool, which, I know, has a good reputation for treating its holidaymakers. I would certainly like to know whether the hotel and boardinghouse association in places like Blackpool or other towns makes any attempt to safeguard the customers' position when there is a legitimate reason for sale and the hotel goes out of business. It does not do the holiday trade and the travel agency business any good when this kind of thing happens.
I know that with this increasing market, with more people going abroad, and more people having more money to spend on holidays, an element of cut-throat competition is coming into this business. Because of the glossy magazines and the wonderful photographs that are presented, who can blame some of the public for not reading the small print on some of the package deal tours? I think that this is happening because of the undue element of competition that is being introduced or allowed to come into this holiday business.
We hear all sorts of rumours about charter planes, sometimes British-owned, but more often foreign-owned, which are not really up to standard, certainly in the opinion of the laymen who have to travel in them. This might not be a matter for my hon. Friend, but I have no doubt that he can pass to the appropriate person the alarm which has been expressed on this point.
What I hope to accomplish in some small way this evening is to draw the attention of my hon. Friend to the public alarm that is being felt about this travel agency service, with all the political manoeuvring that is going on within the service. I do not mean this in a party sense, but within the trade, and we should at least have the opportunity of showing 1422 that the Government are interested in what is going on, and are keeping a watchful eye on just how things are working out in this delicate business of trying to establish an organisation which will give greater protection not just to the members of the organisation, but to the customers.
A holiday is a most important part in a person's life. People who have not the glamour or the interest in their occupations that we might have, tend to treat a holiday as one of the most important things in their life, whether we like it or not. Sometimes we do not like it, but it is, nevertheless, true, and, therefore, the disappointment is all the more damaging when a person has built up such hopes of a holiday. I am sure, therefore, that I can rely on my hon. Friend to give me some words of comfort.
§ 11.53 p.m.
§ The Minister of State, Board of Trade (Mr. Roy Mason)At this time of the year large numbers of our fellow countrymen are enjoying holidays in countries other than Britain, or have arranged to do so in the summer months ahead. Most of these holidays will have been arranged through, or by, British travel agents, and accordingly I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Provan (Mr. Hugh D. Brown) for raising this subject tonight.
In view of what my hon. Friend said, I ought to say to him that if potential tourists are experiencing difficulties, and particularly if they are being let down, I should like to know. Details from either my hon. Friend or any Member would be welcomed, when I will be glad to look into them.
Perhaps we do not always fully realise the tremendous growth in international tourism which has taken place in the two decades since the war, and which continues to grow at a never slackening pace. In 1954, a mere 900,000 visitors came to our shores from abroad. Ten years later, by 1964, this figure had grown almost threefold to just under 24- million. By 1970, at the current rate of growth, it has been estimated that Britain will be attracting an annual inflow of at least 4 million visitors from overseas.
At the same time as increasing numbers of visitors arrive in Britain, more and more of our own residents are going 1423 abroad for their holidays, and in many ways it would be wrong to regard this as anything other than an entirely healthy development.
International tourism is making an increasingly important contribution to the economic development of many countries throughout the world. Indeed, international tourism is not only a symbol of the free circulation of people and ideas, and of our democratic way of life, but is also a stimulus to economic development which no country, no matter how large or how small, can now afford to neglect.
The main theme of our debate, however, is the role and function of British travel agents. The Association of British Travel Agents has supplied to me its own estimate of the number of travel agents operating in this country. The number of firms who are members of A.B.T.A. is 1,143. To this figure must be added 275 firms which have applied for membership and whose applications are now being considered by the association. This produces a total of 1,418 firms which are members or potential members of A.B.T.A. In addition, the Association estimates that there may be a further 300 or 400 travel agents in the United Kingdom and, thus, that the overall number of travel agents operating in the United Kingdom is 1,700 to 1,800.
The 1,143 firms which are members of A.B.T.A. operate a total of 2,092 travel offices throughout the United Kingdom. The vast majority are firms of the highest repute and I should like to pay tribute to the work which they do in contributing to the health and happiness not only of our own citizens who go overseas for their holidays, but of the millions of people who visit our shores from overseas.
It is true that, occasionally, as a result of a firm ceasing to trade, a small number of holidaymakers have in the past suffered inconvenience or financial loss. However, I must emphasise that the number of such unfortunate cases in the past has been infinitesimal compared with the millions of our fellow countrymen who return to these shores each year entirely satisfied with the holidays which, in the majority of cases, have been arranged for them by travel agents or tour operators.
1424 The Board of Trade recently carried out an exercise which indicated that, of the approximately three million United Kingdom residents who undertook inclusive tours abroad during 1964 and 1965, fewer than 100 were temporarily stranded abroad during their holidays as a result of the failures of the tour operators with whom they booked. This works out at only one in 30,000, or less than 0005 per cent.
Nevertheless, the Government are by no means complacent about the tiny minority of holidaymakers who have some legitimate complaint against the firms with whom they have booked. The House will recall that, on previous occasions, I have discussed the practicability of drafting legislation which would offer tourists some degree of protection against the risk of financial default by the organisers of inclusive tours without, at the same time, increasing the cost of holidays or by restricting legitimate enterprise or initiative. On balance, and given the inherrent difficulty which legislation presents, I think that it is preferable for the trade to deal, if possible, with this problem by action within its own organisation. Such action may be more likely to offer effective protection than statutory legislation.
What then are the measures being taken by the trade to protect the public against the misfortunes to which my hon. Friend has referred? First, I must refer to the accounts rules adopted by the Association of British Travel Agents in October, 1964, under which every member of the association, no matter whether he be a retail travel agent or a tour organiser, is required to submit balance sheets to an independent, qualified accountant at regular intervals of not more than twelve months. He is also required to open his books to the inspection of the accountant and to supply him with any other information which is considered necessary.
Thereafter, the accountant sends his report to the member concerned and the member himself must submit a signed copy of the accountant's report to the Council of A.B.T.A. within six months of the date of the balance sheet. Thus, the financial stability and standing of all members is checked by the Association.
1425 In addition, the Association established in February of last year a common fund to which members contribute such sums as may be decided by the Council from time to time. This fund is to be used principally to prevent members of the travelling public from being stranded abroad because of financial default on the part of a member of the Association. To that extent, therefore, it may be described as a "rescue fund". The Association also intends to use it, if resources permit, for the benefit of tourists who have booked and paid for holidays which do not start because of the financial default of any member tour organiser.
The third and most publicised measure taken by A.B.T.A. was the introduction of "Operation Stabiliser", which was adopted towards the end of last year. This is complementary to the establishment of the common fund to which I have just referred. The substance of this arrangement is for the sale in the United Kingdom of holidays or tours to places outside the British Isles. First, tour operators who are members of A.B.T.A. shall appoint as agents and pay commission only to travel agents who are also members of A.B.T.A. Secondly, travel agents who are members of A.B.T.A. shall sell tours and holidays as defined above only on behalf of tour operators who are members of A.B.T.A.
I am aware that the introduction of "Operation Stabiliser" has caused some disquiet, particularly among travel agents who are not members of A.B.T.A. Accordingly, I repeat my assurance that we are watching the effects of this measure most carefully and will not hesitate to act should it show signs of developing in undesirable ways. Nevertheless, my main responsibility is to safeguard the interests of the travelling public, and I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the trade in their determination to put their own house in order. I am also aware that the Association has its own code of conduct which governs relations between their members and the public, between members and principals and between members themselves.
1426 I would like to take this opportunity of advising as strongly as I can members of the public to study most carefully the printed conditions governing their holiday before signing the booking or application form. We occasionally receive complaints at the Board of Trade from holiday-makers who have not taken this simple precaution and are subsequently disgruntled to find that the terms of their holiday are not quite what they expected. "Always read the small print" is a good motto for anyone signing the application for a holiday overseas.
I was pleased to hear my hon. Friend refer to this point. It is a good motto for any contract, but it is a particularly good motto for those planning to take a holiday abroad. Each failure, as I know from letters and complaints which I receive, is a human tragedy for the family because they have saved possibly for 12 months for their first holiday abroad. I warn them therefore, when making an application, to study the small print.
Most of the discussion tonight, brief as it has been, has centred on the work done by British travel agents on behalf of Britons seeking holidays abroad. But from the point of view of the national economy, the work which travel agents do in attracting overseas residents to our shores is even more important and will continue to be so. Nevertheless, British travel agents have much to be proud of for the work they have done in recent years in enabling many of our countrymen to take and enjoy their holiday overseas. When the travel trade has fully implemented its measures to protect and safeguard the travelling public we shall have even more reason to be grateful for the valuable service they provide.
I wish, in conclusion, once more to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Provan for raising this topic and for giving me, at this opportune moment, this chance to warn the travelling public to remember, before signing a contract, that they must read the document first.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at five minutes past Twelve o'clock.