Abta’s Travel Matters conference has been reduced to a half-day event after fewer delegates signed up than expected.
The event will go ahead on June 3 in Westminster, but six breakout discussion groups have been dropped.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said he had been targeting 250 paying delegates and was now hoping for 100-150 industry bosses, who would now be invited free of charge.
He said: “It’s actually going to be more successful as a restructured smaller event over half a day.
“It will be far tighter with the real drivers of this industry, plus about 70 journalists. Even if this was just an opportunity to get our messages out to the media, then it would be money reasonably well spent.”
None of the political parties had confirmed attendance as Travel Weekly went to press due to the general election but Abta said it would step up its efforts after the election to target key individuals from the new government to attend.
Managing director of event organsier Dellar Davies, Elaine Dellar, said it was not just the cost that had stopped people booking, but also the time out of the office.