According to the parliamentary bill submitted to the Sejm, the Insurance Guarantee Fund will make payments to travelers for unattended tourist events in connection with the coronavirus pandemic.
The Insurance Guarantee Fund will make payments to travelers for unattended tourist events due to the coronavirus epidemic
/123RF/PICSEL
On Friday, the Sejm’s website published a parliamentary draft amendment to the law on special solutions related to the prevention, prevention and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them, and some other acts. Its author are PiS MPs.
The draft of the novella contains further assistance solutions aimed at the tourism industry, which is in trouble in connection with the coronavirus.
In the so-called Shield 1.0, it was decided that travel agencies could offer vouchers for trips to customers if their event did not take place due to the outbreak of the epidemic. The second option was a refund. In this case, however, the customer would have to wait up to 180 days for it. The purpose of these rules was to provide liquidity to tourism companies that found themselves in a very difficult situation due to the crisis.
In the justification of the draft published on Friday, however, we read that the analyzes carried out show that by the end of June, less than 30 percent. travelers have decided to accept the voucher.
“On the other hand, a complete stagnation of several months on the market of tourist services did not allow tour operators to generate adequate funds to cover payments for canceled events” – emphasized.
Therefore, the draft proposes the introduction of a mechanism that would cover payments to clients of travel agencies.
“The tour operator will be able to submit a payment application to the Insurance Guarantee Fund via the ICT system,” we read in the justification.
The draft also shows that a traveler who applies for compensation will also submit a similar application to UFG.
Pursuant to the draft regulations, the UFG, after receiving applications from the tour operator and the traveler, will verify them and then make payments to travelers.
Funds for payments are to come from the newly created Tourist Return Fund.
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