What are the Package Travel Regulations and when do they apply?

As the name suggests the PTR protect you if you have bought a package holiday. They also protect you to a lesser extent if you buy Linked Travel Arrangements (LTA) which are a kind of package holiday lite. LTAs will be dealt with separately.

To qualify for protection under the PTR you have to show that

• You are a traveller
• You have bought a package from an organiser
• You have bought a package

Traveller

You are a ‘traveller’ if you are an ‘individual who is seeking to conclude a contract, or is entitled to travel on the basis of a contract concluded, within the scope of these Regulations’.

Basically this means any person who buys a package holiday or who goes on a package holiday. So if Mrs Smith books a package holiday with Zoom Tours for herself, Mr Smith and their two children James and Katie, they are all ‘travellers’ and are entitled to the full protection of the PTR.

Likewise, if Mary books a hen party in Ibiza for herself and 10 friends with an organiser, they are all ‘travellers’ covered by the PTR and they all have rights against the organiser.

Organiser

An organiser is ‘a trader who combines and sells, or offers for sale, packages, either directly or through another trader’.

An organiser is what is popularly known as a tour operator but it would also cover travel agents who put packages together. If you buy travel over the internet then these tour operators or OTAs (Online Travel Agents) would also be defined as organisers if they are selling packages.

An organiser must also be a ‘trader’ – someone who is selling packages in the course of a business, trade, craft or profession. Clearly this would cover tour operators and travel agents who sell packages as part of a commercial business. But if Mary, referred to above, put the package together herself and then collected money from the rest of the hen party she would not be a ‘trader’ and therefore not an ‘organiser’. In those circumstances the rest of the hen party could not sue her if things went wrong.

What are my Package Holiday Rights