ABTA staff will tonight address delegates in a fringe meeting at the ongoing Labour conference.
Head of policy and communications David Marshall and head of consumer affairs Keith Richards will go head-to-head with Friends of the Earth senior parliamentary campaigner Martyn Williams in a debate entitled Sustainable Tourism: Flying – Friend or Foe?
Marshall added: “We’ll be discussing flying, what it does to the environment and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprints.”
While he expects up to 40 Labour delegates to attend the event – which is competing with around 2,000 similar conferences this week – he added they will also use the opportunity to continue talks with Government officials.
“We’re finding the Government a bit more receptive as it wants to know more about what we’re doing. We’re also pushing the European emissions trading scheme and the move towards cleaner aircraft,” he added.
The ABTA delegation will also visit the Conservative conference in Blackpool next week where it will hold talks with shadow tourism minister Tobias Ellwood. It also attended last week’s Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton.