The travel guarantee is supposed to give travelers who have purchased a package holiday their money back if the company goes bankrupt. But during the pandemic, a number of gaps were discovered in the system, which is based on tour operators arranging an individual travel guarantee for their travelers. One of the problems was that the money was not enough to reimburse everyone affected.
This risk is expected to decrease when the government now proposes that a collective fund be built up.
This creates a more robust system. With the establishment of a fund, there will always be money, says Minister of Civil Service Erik Slottner (KD).
Another thing that caused problems was that the travel guarantee does not apply if trips are canceled due to, for example, a pandemic, forest fire or ash cloud and the tour operator subsequently goes bankrupt.
That will change and is something that will be improved in the new system, says Slottner.
From April 1, 2026, travel companies will begin paying a fee into the collective fund equivalent to 0.6 percent of the value of the package tour sold, which corresponds to SEK 60 for a trip worth SEK 10,000.
The fund is expected to be fully expanded when it has reached SEK 1.5 billion, which the government expects will have happened around 2031. Until then, there will be two parallel systems.
In phase two, when the fund is fully expanded, the travel guarantee will be expanded to also include vouchers. During the pandemic, many travelers experienced that vouchers they had received for canceled trips became worthless when companies went bankrupt.
