The European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA) semi-annial convention in Sofia has expressed concerns regarding the proposed Passenger Mobility Package, which aims to establish new passenger rights for unimodal and multimodal transport.
ECTAA criticised proposed reimbursement rules that place undue obligations on travel intermediaries, requiring them to refund fees for ticket sales that they do not operate or control, without compensation from transport operators, creating an unrealistic financial burden.
Fifty delegates from 31 countries attended the event to discuss future strategies for the European travel industry in collaboration with local tourism leaders. Ann Dolan represented the Irish Travel Agents Association at the event.
The association raised concerns about the handling of sensitive customer data, urging for measures to prevent transport operators from misusing information obtained from intermediaries for commercial gain.
Much of the discussion focussed on unexpected side effects of legislation designed to improving accessibility in tourism ahead of the European Accessibility Act’s enforcement in mid-2025, alongside a workshop addressing the revision of the Package Travel Directive for better consumer protection.
ECTAA says it supports fair and effective passenger rights but believes that regulations should not disadvantage intermediaries or harm consumer choice by favouring direct channels of transport operators. The organisation will continue to advocate for practical solutions in the legislative discussions.
The meeting addressed pressing challenges in the sector, focusing on risk management, crisis resilience, and particularly climate risks affecting destinations, hospitality, and tour operations.
ECTAA President Franck Oostdam shared: Intermediaries create transparency and offer choice by presenting various options across numerous transport operators, a service that is not typically provided by transport operators themselves. It is essential that intermediaries are not held liable for the performance of transport services they neither operate nor control.
ECTAA has always backed fair, effective passenger rights legislation. However, regulations that are practically impossible to implement are counterproductive. Legislation should not disadvantage indirect distribution channels to the benefit of transport operators’ direct channels, as this would ultimately harm consumer choice.
The passenger mobility package, introduced by the European Commission in November 2023, is under active discussion in the Council of Ministers and will soon be debated in the European Parliament. Among the proposals, new reimbursement rules when an intermediary is involved present major challenges. These rules disregard existing processes, creating impractical expectations that could burden travel intermediaries with undue obligations.
Under the current proposal, intermediaries would be required to refund fees they charge for facilitating ticket sales, regardless of the nature of the service provided. For ECTAA, this is a costly and unrealistic expectation, especially as transport operators rarely compensate intermediaries for their services in ticket sales. ECTAA is also concerned about customer data handling, calling for stringent measures to prevent transport operators from misusing sensitive customer information shared by intermediaries for commercial purposes. While ECTAA supports the principle of multimodal passenger rights, it emphasizes that such rights must be fair and balanced.
