Page 74 - WTM Industry Report

World Travel Market 2017 Industry Report
The vast majority of industry executives (75%) who took part in the research for the report say fake sickness claims have not impacted their business. However, 22% said the problem had some impact, while 3% said fake sickness claims had a signi cant impact over the past year.
The holiday bug scams have been more prevalent in Spain than anywhere else and last year the UK Foreign Of ce
warned holidaymakers about rising numbers of ‘claims touts’ in popular Spanish resorts. The warning was then extended to travellers to Portugal and there have been reports of such activity in parts of Greece.
Earlier this year, ABTA launched a #StopSicknessScams campaign and, in summer 2017, a judge recommended there should be a restriction on the amount of legal fees that can be charged by lawyers representing claims companies.
Jet2holidays hired undercover detectives in resorts to sniff out bogus-claim touts. In one case, it released copies of the claimants’ bar bill to the media, which showed they carried on drinking heavily on the days they were ‘sick’.
A series of high-pro le Crown Court cases brought by Thomas Cook and other operators in summer 2017 included a Liverpool family who falsely claimed £52,000 and another couple who were described by a judge as ‘fundamentally dishonest’. The couple were ordered to pay nearly £4,000 in costs.
In another incident, the ve-star Caldera Palace Hotel in Crete counter-sued a British couple for £170,000 for damage to its reputation after falsely claiming illness.
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