The collapse of Thomas Cook has led to an incredible rescue operation. Should India look at such protection for travellers?

The collapse of Thomas Cook in the UK has little or no direct bearing on India other than the fact that this winter, there might be fewer holiday-makers from Britain in Goa and Kerala, the two destinations popular among those who book package holidays back home. Thomas Cook India, which was once a subsidiary, was spun off a few years ago and is currently majorly owned by a Canadian investor. Thomas Cook was the original package tour operator wherein people paid a company to take care of all arrangements of travel, stay and food. But a history of bad decisions coupled with management greed  led the company to its demise. These have clearly been compounded by concerns about Brexit and the way the travel industry has undergone a sea-change in recent times. The rise of an online market, with consumers choosing their own travel plans through aggregated players and with Airbnb and OYO services now being available in almost every city round the world, travel agencies are becoming all but redundant while their commissions have dwindled drastically. Consequently, it is either corporate business travellers or those who do not want the baggage on their heads to plan a trip who rely on them. A sudden shutdown of the traditional service has meant that it is not just those planning holidays who’ve been hit. Imagine the plight of the 180,000 holiday-makers, who are currently out on their vacations and have suddenly discovered that not only has their holiday been curtailed, they have no way of getting back home.

For years, the British have had something called the Air Travel Organisers’ Licence (ATOL), wherein a small fee from every package holiday went to the UK’s Civil Aviation Administrator so that in case of a business failure, the funds could be used to help repatriate stranded tourists home. The rationale behind this plan was developed after several operators went under in the 1970s with a multitude of citizens stranded abroad. For many in those days, holidays were once-in-a-lifetime experiences for which they would save money for years. Many vacationers did not have the funds to pay for an emergency ticket back home, let alone pay for such tickets for entire families. Over time, the planning and execution to rescue stranded tourists across the world — from the Asia-Pacific to the US — has become a remarkable operation and is extremely impressive, especially since it is being conducted during peacetime. Most other dramatic repatriation operations have often had the clouds of war in the background, including India’s dramatic airlift of citizens before the 1991 Gulf War. While this provision only covers those with package holidays, there have been industry calls for protecting the traveller from failed airlines. India, too, must look at such a proposal. In the past decade, two large airlines and several smaller ones have gone into insolvency, leaving thousands of travellers high and dry. While those, who paid with credit cards, were entitled to some sort of compensation from their card-issuing companies, others found themselves without any recourse. Those who were abroad, or even foreign flyers in India, found themselves stranded. As air travel and package tours become more popular, several companies, airlines and travel operators will face financial difficulties in India and could face a heartbreak or two in the coming years. The Government should add a small fee, even under a hundred rupees, to every air ticket to take care of such an eventuality. While travellers should be aware of the financial health of their tour operators and the airlines, that is not always possible and with many holidays booked months in advance, it is impossible to predict a business failure.