Travel agency Travel Matters has raised awareness of the industry’s plight and the battle for business interruption insurance pay-outs with local MP Marsha de Cordova.
Owner Karen Simmonds met the Battersea MP (pictured) at her south London shop to discuss the issues facing the sector.
The agency is one of those hoping to claim on its business interruption insurance but has yet to receive any money from the insurance company.
Already more than 40 agencies are planning to take legal action on the issue after a Supreme Court ruling in January ruled that insurers are liable in most cases, particularly when a policy offered cover for closure as a result of an outbreak of an infectious disease.
Simmonds also raised the issue of furlough with her MP, saying there was a “very real risk of a major jobs crisis in the industry” with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme due to end in September.
She said: “It feels like the travel sector is fighting battles on all sides and it’s extremely overwhelming. We recognise that there are so many people affected and it breaks my heart.”
After the meeting, de Cordova said: “It was a good opportunity to talk to Karen at Travel Matters in my constituency who informed me not only of the plight of the industry but the industry but the injustice of these insurance companies who are squeezing the lifeblood out of people.”