Holiday firms facing health suit

TWO Edinburgh holidaymakers who claim to have endured a holiday from hell in Egypt have joined 45 others in a High Court action against two holiday companies.

One of the claims has been brought by a widower who has alleged that his wife died as a result of contracting a gastro- intestinal illness while staying at the five-star Movenpick Hotel at Taba in Egypt in 2010.

The holidaymakers are suing First Choice Holidays and Flights and Longwood Holidays over package trips to the hotel. Forty six claims are against First Choice and one against Longwood.

The Edinburgh holidaymakers are Alexander Keir and Ian Rawlings, both aged 42.

Their writ, issued at London’s High Court, said the holidaymakers stayed at the hotel between March and May 2010 and most of them developed gastrointestinal illness, including diarrhoea and nausea, which they blame on food and drink in the hotel.

The writ accuses the two firms of negligence, with a catalogue of alleged failures in food hygiene. It also alleges that staff suffering from gastric illnesses were allowed to continue working; swimming pools were not kept clean and property chlorinated, and that the hotel was not cleaned adequately.

It also claims that the two companies knew there had been an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness earlier that year, but continued to send people to stay at the hotel without being warned of this.

Clare Campbell, a partner at travel law solicitors Pannone who is representing the 47 holidaymakers, said: “Anyone who has had their holiday ruined through inadequate standards of hygiene at their hotel has a right to compensation.”

Longwood declined to comment, and First Choice did not respond to a request to comment.