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How to make the package travel market more competitive was the key question debated at the bi-annual meeting of ECTAA in Cracow on 1 June by the Members of the European Federation of travel agents and tour operators and the European Commission’s representative in charge for the revision of the package travel legislation, Ms. Manfredi. Competitiveness was also the key element in Mr Andropoulos’ presentation on tourism related activities led by the European Commission.
In her presentation, Ms. Manfredi, Head of Unit in DG Justice responsible for the revision of the package travel Directive, recalled the need for such revision. A European legislation that dates from 20 year ago needs adapting to the evolution of the travel market, in particular the internet and low cost carriers. The package travel market is declining, with an increasing number of consumers opting to organise their holiday themselves, rather than purchasing the traditional pre-arranged package. Dynamic packages, allowing customers themselves to select the elements of their travel, is becoming increasingly popular, but customers are not always aware whether they are still protected under the European legislation when they buy such services.
The need to revise the Directive is shared by the industry. But where views diverge between the industry and the European legislation initiating institution is on how to make this industry more competitive again.
The industry is calling for a better level-playing field between tour operators offering traditional pre-arranged packages and all those operators on the market, which offer similar products but today are not covered by the European legislation and thus escape stringent information and liability provision as well as requirements to protect against their insolvency. These include for example the enterprises offering dynamic packages and click-through sales. The industry welcomes the Commission’s intentions to capture at least some of these operators but are very concerned about possible additional obligations put on tour operators, where no equivalent obligations exist for operators falling outside the scope of the legislation.
The Commission believes that giving more rights to consumers and making them aware of their rights will make the package travel product more attractive again and thereby increase its market share. A number of options are considered by the Commission, among other the introduction of a label to raise customers’ awareness that they are protected and enjoy a number of rights.
Said newly-elected President of ECTAA, Mr. Boris Zgomba: “The package travel market is a very price sensitive market and most often the decision to buy one product over another boils down to the best price offered. In such context what the package travel market needs is a level-playing field between all those operators that offer package travel and similar products to the travelling public.”
He further noted: “While the package travel Directive has been a good piece of legislation for the industry and the customers, we need to ensure that we do not overregulate part of the industry that is offering high protection to customers but will not be able to sustain the competition from all those players that manage to escape from the consumer protection legislation."
Mr. Andropoulos, Head of Unit in DG Enterprise, also stressed the aim of competitiveness in all the actions undertaken by his Unit in the frame of the European tourism policy, such as those relating to better accessibility for all in tourism services, uptake of ICT in small and medium-sized tourism companies, better understanding the skills and education requirements of people working in the tourism industry, etc. ECTAA is closely involved in one of the actions through the management of the TOURIMSLink project, which aims at creating links between smaller local tourism enterprises to improve their competitiveness through the smart use of information and communication technology.
Boris Zgomba took over thw chairmanship of ECTAA
At the General Assembly of ECTAA held during the end of last week in Krakow, a little more than one year before Croatia enters the membership of the European Union, for the first time a representative of our country took over the chairmanship of one of the associations within the EU.
It is Boris Zgomba, the President of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies. The positive results of the work of UHPA resulted in the nomination of Zgomba to the position of the President of ECTAA, an alliance whose headquarters is in Brussels and which unites a total of 31 associations from 29 countries. Through the membership in ECTAA there are 77 thousand tourist agencies united all throughout Europe. Zgomba with this position has replaced Irena Gueorguieva, the representative from Bulgaria.
Boris Zgomba, the newly nominated President of ECTAA emphasized how this nomination represents great responsibility but also a professional challenge. “Some of the main goals of my mandate will be to strengthen the significance and position of travel agencies in Europe, then to expand the membership and to solve legal problems from various activities of travel organizers. Along with the above stated, great emphasis will also be placed on the project Incoming Europe. ECTAA will continue to have the leading role in positioning agency affairs in the EU since it is a fact that travel agencies are significant participants in the European business activities. One of our most important tasks will be to secure that this significance grows over the coming years. One of the priorities will definitely be the further development and promotion of the affairs of Croatian tourist agencies and the entire Croatian tourist economy, as well as strengthening the Republic of Croatia on the tourist map of Europe."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
