Newsroom
Lawmakers are pushing for new legislation to better protect consumers affected by travel agency bankruptcies, after a recent collapse left dozens of holidaymakers facing heavy losses.
The issue was discussed Tuesday at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Commerce, which reviewed the matter on its own initiative. According to the Cyprus Consumers Association, the latest bankruptcy left 186 people, many of them pensioners, out of pocket. While roughly €100,000 is owed to affected customers, the bankrupt agency’s guarantee covers just €12,000. That means each customer will receive only about 13 cents for every euro they paid.
Stavros Papadouris, president and MP of the Environmental Movement, slammed the situation as another example of consumers bearing the cost of government inaction. “Consumers will once again come to pay for the state’s negligence,” he said, pointing out that the Consumers Association has been raising warnings about such gaps since 2020.
Papadouris said new legislation is being drafted and could be ready in seven to eight months. But he expressed doubts, saying the current proposals would still require consumers to pay an additional fee, which would then be used to cover future claims. “If you want to solve a problem, you proactively put in place safeguards so that anyone trying to deceive the system and customers will incur a cost,” he added.
Marios Drousiotis, president of the Cyprus Consumers Association, described the situation as “unacceptable.” He blamed multiple parties for the recurring problem, including the Association of Travel Agents, the Ministry of Energy, and the Consumer Protection Service, saying, “Some people did not do their job, and we are seeing the same thing again, with consumers paying for the broken parts.”
Drousiotis also emphasized that the law itself is not at fault. “It is the fault of those who were tasked with implementing the law,” he said, highlighting the human and systemic failures behind the latest consumer losses.
