Background information

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions on travel options, the travel industry resorted to providing travellers with booked tickets a voucher for any issues surrounding their travel package. This measure specifically targets travel package agencies that provide holiday packages to consumers. Regular travel agencies selling single tickets or accommodation are not included in this measure as the government provides other forms of assistance that this group does not get. Furthermore, this measure is an additional measure as travel package agencies can also make use of other COVID-19 recovery and support schemes adopted by the government such as the SME credit guarantee scheme (BMKB) or the Expanding business loan guarantee scheme (GO-C) .

Content of measure

This measure provides liquidity loans (voucher credits) to travel organisations through the Stichting Garantiefonds Reisgelden (Travel Guarantee Fund, SGR) organisation. This makes it possible for a travel agency that is temporarily in-need of finances to lend funds to return the amount of a voucher with an SGR guarantee for a package holiday to the consumer. The travel agency is subject to repayment of the credit to the SGR organisation. In this case, the travel agency can securely bridge a time of financial difficulties, while also providing the consumer the opportunity to receive their money back through a voucher.

To be eligible for the voucher credit program, a travel company must satisfy the following requirements:

• Before the corona crisis, the travel organisation's finances had to be in good order.
• The credit must be repaid within six years by the travel organisation.
• The offer for a package trip was valid with SGR guarantee between 12 March and 31 December 2020.

The government has made a €400 million Voucher Fund accessible to guarantee fund SGR. On 30 March 2021, the European Commission in Brussels formally authorised the Voucher Fund. A travel agency can loan up to €50 million, or 80% of the number of outstanding vouchers. This loan may only be used to reimburse customers' travel vouchers.

Use of measure

It is estimated that around 300 travel agencies have registered for the Voucher Fund based on a publication by the Chamber of Commerce, however, it is currently unclear as there is no official evaluation report available.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Other social actors (e.g. NGOs)	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown.

Views and reactions

Unknown.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 01 December 2020: Voucher Kredietregeling (www.rijksoverheid.nl)
• 31 March 2021: Dit moet je weten over het voucherfonds (www.kvk.nl)