ROME (ITALPRESS) – The trade associations AIAV, Aidit Confindustria, Assoviaggi Confesercenti, Astoi Confindustria Viaggi, Fiavet Confcommercio, FTO and Maavi have written a joint note to all Italian MEPs, the EU President, the Italian Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Tourism and ECTAA regarding the Draft Report last Feb. 25 by MEP Alex Agius Saliba, rapporteur in Parliament of the proposed amendment to the Package Travel Directive.
In the past few months, the Commission’s review proposal published last November arrived at compromise solutions as a result of the trade associations’ interlocutions with the Italian government, through the Ministry of Tourism, and following the negotiations that took place between the European Commission and the Council of the Union, then voted on by COREPER in December 2024.
On this occasion,” the note says, “the most questionable elements, which made the proposal unworkable for the market, had been removed from the text, maintaining a balance between the interests of the tourism industry and those of consumers. Among the amendments proposed in Congressman Saliba’s report, which are contested by the Associations, there is mainly Article 5a of the directive, which would like to reintroduce, compared to the drafts of the previous negotiation, the limit of 25 percent for down payments on tourist packages and the requirement of the balance not earlier than 28 days from the beginning of the package itself, as well as the option for each EU member country to impose the establishment of an escrow account for consumer down payments.
This would standardize the economic terms of package sales at the European level, effectively violating free market competition. But the most worrying aspect is the economic one: many operators would not be able to handle advanced booking, which has become an essential lever to today’s tourism market, and almost all of them would have financial difficulties in developing their business by being able to collect the balance of what they have sold only 28 days before departure, anticipating out of their own pockets the expenses that are to all intents and purposes the consumer’s.
Also worrisome,” the associations continue, “is the assumption of the opening of an escrow account, an additional burden on top of the one already faced by organized tourism operators who provide guarantees for insolvency and bankruptcy with a fund that already covers consumer risk.
Another aspect previously pointed out by the Associations is the assumption of withdrawal due to extraordinary circumstances for which no amendment is proposed specifying that these circumstances are limited to natural disasters, pandemics etc., with the risk that it could be interpreted as encompassing any assumption of personal impediment of the consumer.
In addition, the insertion of a new paragraph in Article 12 is proposed that provides for the possibility of trip cancellation with full reimbursement of payments made under an Authority safety notice -‘”official travel warning'” – issued 28 days before the trip. Finally, this revision also opens up a new case for complaint handling with a 21-day response requirement, with disproportionate fines of up to 4 percent of the tour operator’s annual turnover.
According to the Associations, this revision is inspired by needs that arose during extraordinary events, such as the Covid 19 pandemic or the Thomas Cook bankruptcy, which do not represent a fair and indicative parameter of the ordinary dynamics of the package tour market. The proposed measures would aggravate the entire industry, and in particular the small and medium-sized enterprises that are the economic fabric of the industry in Italy and other countries, instead favoring big players with substantial financial capacity, often non-European, which would end up undermining the organized tourism industry in member countries.
These Associations therefore call for an immediate “show of hands” by our MEPs and the political leadership of our government and that of the EU for the ongoing discussion in Brussels, which is expected to close the final vote of the Parliament on June 26, 2025, confident of the leaked commitment by the Ministry of Tourism to work in the direction of a fair and sustainable conclusion for businesses and consumers.
– Photo Agency Photogram –
(ITALPRESS).
