The UK boss of Tui has said he "does not agree" with the FCO’s proposed changes to its travel advice, and believes it is likely to confuse customers.
Nick Longman also revealed that the group was now offering advice on its own website, in a bid to make customers fully aware of any potential terror threats in a destination.
It follows accusations last month at the pre-inquest hearing into the Tunisian massacre that Tui failed to warn customers of the terrorism risk prior to the deadly attack in Sousse last June, which left 38 dead.
During an interview with TTG editor Pippa Jacks at the ITT conference in Tel Aviv, Longman was critical of the FCO’s proposed changes, which would see a fourth tier added to its travel advice between its current “green” (check travel advice) and “amber” (advise against all but essential travel) levels.
“I don’t agree with what they are proposing,” he said. “I don’t think they should move to a four-tier system. I think it would be confusing and would create some operational issues [for tour operators].
“What’s important is transparency,” he added. “Now we are doing explicit messages on our website – “Know Before you Go”, with links to relevant government websites.
“We want to make sure we’re absolutely transparent – that our customers going on holiday know where they are going.”
Elsewhere Longman conceded that Tunisia would likely take a long time to recover its tourism appeal following the deadly attack, unlike destinations such as Turkey and Egypt which he said would bounce back more quickly.
“Turkey and Egypt are mostly [affected] in the short-term. We’re already seeing Turkey picking up. Since our results [released in February, which revealed a 40% slump in demand for the destination] we’ve seen bookings increase,” he said.
“I think Tunisia will be a longer recovery though. The nature of what happened will affect customers. Tunisia will come back,” he insisted, “but it will take longer.”