Apology issued to Irish Travellers

The Pontins company operating holiday parks has apologised to Irish Travellers for discriminating against them. The apology is a first step in a one-year action plan to tackle what the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) described earlier this year as “shocking overt race discrimination”.

In February this year, the EHRC told Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited, the trading name of Pontins, that it had acted unlawfully following an investigation uncovering company practices aimed at barring Irish Travellers from their holiday parks between 2013 and 2018.

These practices included monitoring calls within its contact centre and refusing bookings made by people with an Irish accent or surname, maintaining a list of Irish surnames on its intranet page titled “undesirable guests” and using an electoral roll requirement in its booking terms and conditions as a disguised form of discrimination.

In its apology, Pontins admitted its refusal to allow guests to stay at its parks “was clearly wrong” and accepted the serious nature of the issues raised in the report, saying it “deeply regrets any distress caused, particularly to members of the traveller and gypsy communities who have been directly affected”.

EHRC chair Baroness Kishwer Falkner said “race and ethnicity should never be a barrier to going on holiday” and that “the wider holiday sector should ensure that their policies and procedures do not breach equality law”.