All corona vouchers – ie the vouchers for a canceled trip due to the corona pandemic – will be refunded no later than January 31. Koen van den Bosch, managing director of the Association of Flemish Travel Agencies (VVR), guarantees this.
“The payment must then have been made, but it is of course no guarantee that the amount will already be on the voucher holder’s account that day. Depending on the bank, this can take a few days,” he said.
The Belgian government approved a corona voucher bank in November 2021, which gave travel organizers a government loan with which they could make outstanding repayments. One condition was that the repayment was made no later than January 31 this year.
New journey
The vouchers were created at the start of the corona pandemic, in March 2020. Consumers whose trip was canceled could later book a new trip with them. In this way they wanted to prevent travel agencies from going bankrupt, because they had to pay back canceled trips en masse. The vouchers were valid for one year to book a new trip. Those who had not yet done so could request their money. The tour operator then had six months to repay the customer. However, that refund was delayed because it was waiting for the corona voucher bank.
In total, about seventy travel organizers have signed up for the government loan, good for an amount of about 20 million euros, says State Secretary for Consumer Protection Eva De Bleeker.
“I am pleased that the travel sector can close this story of the corona vouchers nicely at the end of this month,” she responds. “The loan gave the hard-hit travel sector some financial breathing space, while at the same time ensuring a refund for consumers.”
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