A travel agent’s 12-year-old daughter has penned a letter to the prime minister after overhearing her mother talking about her fears for the trade’s future.
Ava Lowe, whose mother Tania is a partner of PR World Travel in Radcliffe, near Manchester, has asked Boris Johnson to “do something to help” travel agencies stay open because she is worried they will struggle to survive.
Her letter says: “I am writing to you because of a concern I have. I believe that travel businesses will not get back on their feet this year and therefore may go into debt or go bust. So can you please do something to help them stay open and in business.”
Tania said she was unaware her daughter planned to write the letter but said she would now be posting it to the PM.
She said: “She decided to do it on her own. She had overheard me talking on the phone to my business partner about cancellations and saying I didn’t know what would happen in the future.
“Obviously this has stuck in her mind and she wanted to help. It did make me very emotional.”
PR World Travel has furloughed four staff and permanently closed down one of its two branches at the start of the lockdown, fearing for its survival.
Tania, who has two daughters and is working from home, said: “The Darwen branch had only been open two and a half years and was only just breaking even and the lease was nearly up. With the Thomas Cook closure less than six months ago we needed to make a decision and we consolidated the business to keep it going.”
She was confident her agency would survive the crisis, but added: “It’s a matter of how long this goes on for. We know July and August will be written off but we are hoping to get back on track for September and October. It’s hard to predict. We’re taking it one day at a time otherwise it gets too much emotionally and physically.”