Two years after the horrific 2015 attack on a popular beach resort Port El Kantaoui in Tunisia, in which thirty-eight people were killed, families of the victims are still seeking justice by suing the tour operator that the victims booked their vacation with.
Each of the victims has booked their trips through Thomson, TUI's subsidiary.
However, based on an intensive investigation and the coroner's reports, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith found no reason to implicate the tour agency and the hotel the victims were staying at when the attack happened. TUI has denied gross failure in concern with the attack.
The families of the victims wanted the coroner to give them more insight if neglect from the tour agency and the hotel was a factor in their loved ones' deaths. But according to the coroner, "The simple but tragic truth in this case is that a gunman armed with a gun and grenades went to that hotel intending to kill as many tourists as he could."
He could not also make a direct link between the tour agency's neglect and the deaths of the victims because according to the law, the tourists voluntarily agreed to go to the said vacation, therefore the law concerning neglect does not cover them. TUI also commented that there was no sufficient evidence to support their apparent neglect to the victims; hence they maintained their stance of denying gross failure.
Among the 38 people killed, 30 were from Britain, and the ages of all the victims ranged from 19-80 years old. In response to the hearing, Nick Longman, managing director of travel operator TUI, said: "We have now heard the coroner's findings and his comments regarding the provision of security and visibility of travel advice. These are complex matters and we have already taken steps to raise awareness of the FCO's Travel Aware campaign. As an industry we have adapted and we will need to continue to do so."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
