Tour operators suspend Lake Garda Hotel bookings

For the time being, four prominent UK tour operators have stopped sending their clients to the hotel in the Lake Garda area of Italy where one man died and another 30 guests were hospitalised early last week from food poisoning.

Geoffrey Appleyard, 71, a UK holidaymaker from Evesham, in Worcestershire, died on 22 June 22 after falling ill at Lake Garda’s Grand Hotel Gardone. He had eaten dinner there a few hours earlier. At least 30 other guests were treated at the local hospital, complaining of diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration.

Inghams Travel, Kuoni Travel, Prestige Holidays and TUI Travel, all of which had clients staying at the hotel, have jointly made a joint to remove the hotel from its bookings list until at least 10 July.

A spokesperson for Thomson Lakes and Mountains reported: “We, along with the other operators, have decided to offer customers due to visit the Grand Hotel Gardone alternative accommodation or the option to cancel their trip.”

Law firm Irwin Mitchell has confirmed that it has been approached by more than 20 of the people involved in the incident in regard to taking legal action against the operators of the property.

www.thomson.co.uk