Methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol awareness
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dhewitt@abta.co.uk Tue, 09/02/2025 - 12:28
Methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol pose a serious, life-threatening risk to British travellers in some parts of the world.
ABTA travel agents and tour operators have a responsibility under our Code of Conduct to make their customers aware of the UK Government's overall travel advice for the country to which they are travelling. Their advice would include potential risks in the country, such as methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol where applicable.
On 1 September our Director of Public Affairs and our Director of Industry Relations attended a round table meeting with some of those directly impacted and bereaved families alongside MPs, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and travel industry representatives, to discuss how greater awareness of the risks and symptoms can help.
Luke Petherbridge from ABTA – The Travel Association:
“We welcomed the opportunity to speak to affected family members and campaigners about the risks of methanol poisoning abroad and talk about the work ABTA and our members do on a range of health and safety matters.
“We are a champion of the UK Government’s foreign travel advice, recognising that is a crucial source of information about travel to a destination, which is why we require our members to make their customers aware of it, and it also features heavily in our information campaigns to the public. We also support the FCDO’s Travel Aware campaigns and are pleased to put our weight behind their messaging on methanol awareness.
“The meeting was also an opportunity to look at other ways we can support, and we have committed to sharing Travel Aware campaign details with our members, exploring how we may be able to utilise our education partners and student representatives to amplify messaging, and continuing to engage with the roundtable group and update them on our activities.”
Continue reading...
Full Page image
dhewitt@abta.co.uk Tue, 09/02/2025 - 12:28
Methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol pose a serious, life-threatening risk to British travellers in some parts of the world.
ABTA travel agents and tour operators have a responsibility under our Code of Conduct to make their customers aware of the UK Government's overall travel advice for the country to which they are travelling. Their advice would include potential risks in the country, such as methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol where applicable.
On 1 September our Director of Public Affairs and our Director of Industry Relations attended a round table meeting with some of those directly impacted and bereaved families alongside MPs, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and travel industry representatives, to discuss how greater awareness of the risks and symptoms can help.
Luke Petherbridge from ABTA – The Travel Association:
“We welcomed the opportunity to speak to affected family members and campaigners about the risks of methanol poisoning abroad and talk about the work ABTA and our members do on a range of health and safety matters.
“We are a champion of the UK Government’s foreign travel advice, recognising that is a crucial source of information about travel to a destination, which is why we require our members to make their customers aware of it, and it also features heavily in our information campaigns to the public. We also support the FCDO’s Travel Aware campaigns and are pleased to put our weight behind their messaging on methanol awareness.
“The meeting was also an opportunity to look at other ways we can support, and we have committed to sharing Travel Aware campaign details with our members, exploring how we may be able to utilise our education partners and student representatives to amplify messaging, and continuing to engage with the roundtable group and update them on our activities.”
Continue reading...
