Travel: Departures: Warnings abroad

IN THE Independent Traveller (7 November), we observed that while tour operators and travel agents may not yet have a legal duty to warn their clients about the possible dangers facing travellers abroad, they certainly have a moral obligation to keep them informed.

Our opinion was supported by David Gibbons, a Gloucester coroner, at the inquest into the death of Sharon Hill, the 28-year-old nurse who was murdered in October in a terrorist attack on her tour bus in Egypt.

Mr Gibbons said travel companies had a moral duty to warn clients of any dangers they might face. Graham Realey, a Wiltshire engineer who was on the three-week adventure camping tour with Ms Hill, said he 'was never warned of any possible dangers'.

Stephen Dallyn, marketing manager of Exodus, the travel company concerned, said he was surprised at the coroner's comments: 'Prior to the death of Sharon Hill, there had only been one other incident. We had no reason to think our clients were in any severe danger in this area.'

Mr Dallyn said that the itinerary of Exodus's adventure camping trips had been altered to avoid the danger area. 'This has caused us great expense,' he said. People buying this holiday are being told that this was the trip taken by Sharon Hill when she was murdered.

'The coroner is quite correct. We do have a moral obligation - and we are informing our clients as fully as possible,' he said.