ALL licensed travel consultants in Singapore must ask outbound leisure customers if they would like to purchase travel insurance covering travel consultant insolvency starting next month, announced the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) last Friday.
This new licensing condition, which will kick in from July 15, requires travel consultants to offer their customers travel insurance against the company’s insolvency and to record their customers’ final decision.
It is applicable on a per person basis whenever a consumer makes a deposit or payment of S$500 (US$371) or above, or purchases a travel package costing S$1,000 or more.
An STB statement said the new rule “serves to educate consumers of the measures they can take to protect their interests when they make travel bookings”, and was launched following STB’s discussions with the trade assessing consumer protection measures over the past year.
Assistant chief executive of STB, Yap Chin Siang, said: “With the implementation of the new licensing condition, consumers will now be better informed on steps that they can take to protect themselves against unforeseen circumstances including travel consultant insolvency.”
The new condition comes in on the heels of the sudden closure of Asia-Euro Holidays which left travellers in the lurch last month.
Yap said STB will assist industry stakeholders with implementation of the new condition and will “layer on with continued consumer education efforts”.
Alicia Seah, director of marketing communications at Dynasty Travel, told TTG Asia e-Dailythat 90 per cent of the company’s travellers purchase travel insurance. The 10 per cent that do not may have forgotten to do so or simply do not wish to, especially if they are visiting nearby destinations such as Malaysia and Thailand.
Seah said more has to be done to address the “root of the problem”, the financial health of travel agencies, and suggested more stringent background checks on owners or directors before the issuance of a travel consultant licence.
“We can also ensure an annual or conduct a financial audit every two years to ascertain the financial health of all travel agents before renewing the licence,” she added.
