Travel and tourism industry calls on MEPs to back balanced package travel rules
The European travel and tourism industry welcomes the European Parliament’s ongoing
efforts to revise the Package Travel Directive (PTD) and thanks the Members of IMCO
Committee’s for their support to find the right balance between robust consumer protection
and a thriving, competitive travel and tourism sector.
However, the sector expresses concern over certain proposals that could inadvertently hinder
the package travel model. For instance, restricting prepayments or broadening the “package”
definition to include loosely connected bookings within arbitrary timeframes, e.g., 3 or 24
hours, may create legal uncertainty, limit consumer choice, and impose disproportionate
burdens on small and medium-sized enterprises, which constitute most of travel and tourism
businesses.
To establish a framework that is both principled and practical, the industry recommends two
key improvements:
- Pre-payments are essential for the financial management of the travel and tourism
value chain. Restricting them would disrupt established business models, affect
liquidity, limit investment, and ultimately reduce choice and value for consumers, in
particular budget sensitive travellers. - Simplify the scope of “packages”, ensuring the definition applies only to deliberately
combined services, not to independent bookings made within fixed timeframes.
The industry remains committed to engaging in constructive dialogue with EU institutions to
help shape a final Directive that is practical, proportionate, and future-ready, supporting both
consumer trust and Europe’s leadership in sustainable and high-quality tourism.
