Tour operators must do more to save lives

“family friendly” villa or hotel would have safety barriers around pools, but this is not guaranteed – nor is it likely.

And here’s where this becomes a potentially lethal problem: according to the Child Accident Prevention Trust (capt.org.uk), over the past six years, at least 30 British children under the age of 10 have drowned while on holiday abroad. Beyond water safety, we have no reliable figures on how many, or what sort of, accidents happen to children each year on holiday. In 2018, Telegraph Travel is determined to change this. We are calling on the travel industry to be more forthcoming with its data on incidents, including contributing statistics on accidents to a central database and being transparent about the level of basic safety checks, allowing parents to be better informed when they book.

On holiday, children have the same sorts of accidents they have at home, but may be at increased risk because the parental guard is down. Unfamiliar places and unregulated spaces present a hazard; while the European Union has enacted some regulations and has repeatedly tried to create stricter universal health and safety standards, many countries – including the UK – have voted against these.

Accidents and injuries are sometimes reported, but may not be. While the Foreign and Commonwealth Office publishes monthly statistics that include the number of people who have contacted it for assistance in relation to a death, the causes of death are broad (murder or accident, for example) and do not indicate whether the person was on holiday or an expat. A number of travel companies share data through their membership of the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), which is part of the Association of British Travel Agents, but some large operators and most independent or specialist companies are not members of the FTO. Independent travellers’ experiences are not included in the FTO data.

It is difficult, therefore, to compile a robust analysis of the risks to families, hard to spot trends and impossible to assess where efforts need to be made to reduce the risks to travellers.