It comes after lawyers acting for some of the families of victims of the Sousse massacre last June claimed Tui “lowered prices to induce Brits to go to Tunisia” before 30 of the tour operator’s customers were killed in June 2015.
In a pre-inquest review into the massacre, held last week in London, Andrew Ritchie QC, who represented 17 of the families, also said Tui did not mention the risk of terrorism to customers, despite tourists being killed in an earlier terrorist attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March 2015.
Legal commentators within the travel industry have now warned of the implications of extending the responsibilities of tour operators into giving travel advice.
Consultant Andy Cooper, who was formerly Thomas Cook’s head of public affairs, said: “I think it’s a very dangerous case for the travel industry and I am concerned this is a step in a dangerous direction.
“The travel industry has always used the principle that the responsibility for warning the customer should sit with the FCO (Foreign Office) because they are the experts. Moving away from that principle seems to be fundamentally wrong.
“In terms of pricing, it’s simply a matter of supply and demand – I think it’s a red herring and not relevant, as it has nothing to do with safety.”
Matt Gatenby, a partner at travel law specialist Travlaw, agreed that pricing “comes down to supply and demand”. “It’s a case the travel industry has to keep an eye and hopefully common sense will prevail,” he added.
“If it’s decided to extend the scope of the inquest into tour operator responsibilities, then the industry will have to sit up and take notice. If that happens, then this is going to be an understandable concern.”
During the pre-inquest hearing, Ritchie cited meetings “involving Tui and the Tunisians in which it was stated clearly by the Honorary Consul that hotels will be expected to raise their own security measures in line with the increased security threat” in the aftermath of the Bardo attack. He said: “It is of vital interest to the families, in the context of lowered prices to induce Brits to go to Tunisia, whether the travel companies and the hotels made good and continued to make good on that promise to keep the embargo [FCO advice against travel] off.”
Howard Stevens QC, representing Tui, responded that the tour operator “would not accept the assertion made by Mr Ritchie in relation to pricing strategies”. “It would not accept either the suggestion that he made, that Tui was under an obligation to refer specifically to or summarise FCO advice in other words, the content of that advice on its website or literature,” added Stevens.
Solicitor Irwin Mitchell has already started legal proceedings against Tui on behalf of the families in the civil courts. The next pre-inquest hearing will take place on September 13, with the inquest due to start in London in January 2017.
