Safer Tourism Foundation calls for urgent action to make travelling safer

The Safer Tourism Foundation (STF) has called on the travel industry to take immediate action to protect travellers going overseas and help to reduce the risks of foreign travel.

Katherine Atkinson, the STF chief executive has called for greater transparency from the travel industry to provide data on incidents and accidents abroad. This will mean trends can be more easily identified enabling the industry to focus on what will really help make holidays safer for millions of travellers. And it will help the travelling public to get a better understanding of where the biggest risks lie, and what they can do to help keep themselves and their families safe and well on holiday.

Katherine Atkinson said: “Travel companies are beginning to share their incident data, with some companies more comfortable with this than others. Of course the anonymity of individual customers must be maintained, but if the data is too vague – lacking the age of the person involved, or detail about what caused the incident – it becomes impossible to draw out the wider lessons, and for travellers to know what the real risks are.

“We applaud the companies – large and small – that have shared their data with us so far, and we would like others to do so, because the more we can build up an accurate picture of what goes wrong for British families travelling abroad, the more we can help the industry, and parents, do what they can to make their holidays go right.”

The Daily Telegraph features the Foundation’s call to action.

Katherine Atkinson, commenting on the article, said: “The Telegraph’s call for more openness on accident and injury statistics echoes STF’s work, and is not an attempt to name and shame particular operators. Many of them want to help, but it is important this happens quickly. This is a chance to protect children, and indeed all travellers from harm.”

Alan Oliver, Safer Tourism Foundation