Businesses staging tourist events can offer vouchers to be used in the future as a compensation for packages cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Polish Tourism Organisation and the Ministry of Development advocate this form of refunding advance payment. The voucher is guaranteed by the Tourist Compensation Fund. Do not cancel – reschedule! There is no risk involved.
The voucher shall be valid for a year from the original date of the tourist event for which a given client has already paid. Its value cannot be lower than the costs incurred so far by the client. In addition, the mechanism is remarkably simple to implement.
Introduced by the government as part of the anti-crisis shield, the voucher optimally secures the interest of both travellers and tourism businesses. The former do not have to be afraid of losing money if the company offering the voucher becomes insolvent. In such unfortunate cases, the full amount will be funded from the tour operator’s guarantee or the Tourist Compensation Fund.
The tourism industry found itself in an exceptionally difficult situation. The SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 resulted in entrepreneurs losing their main source of income literally overnight. Now, it is up to us to decide what their future looks like and if someone takes care of us during our next vacations. Let us help the industry by choosing refunds in the form of state-guaranteed tourist vouchers.
