The government’s new Global Travel Taskforce is a “positive step” and “welcome news”, providing genuine travel experts are invited onto it, according to industry leaders.
Speaking on the latest Travel Weekly webcast, Paul Charles, chief executive of The PC Agency, said: “This is hopefully a taskforce of talent from the travel sector, working with experts from the health sector.
“And I think that’s really good for the sector because actually, for once, we’ll have people who hopefully know what they’re talking about, advising senior ministers and the prime minister on the next steps.”
Brian Young, UK and EMEA managing director of G Adventures, and chairman of the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers, added: “My hope is that the travel experts that they ask to join are across the industry, and it isn’t just seen as aviation being the leading force in that.
“It has to be across aviation with representation of travel agents, tour operators, cruise lines, etc. So that UK outbound, inbound, Aito, Atas, agency consortia, the whole lot are covered.
“I would hope that there’s a collective of travel professionals that represent the whole industry that get involved, then you absolutely get the voice of the industry, the expertise of the industry.
“That way, the government will understand the frustrations and how we can overcome those frustrations to work on a solution that’s right, not just for consumers’ protection and safety, but which also opens up our industry to get things moving, because it’s a standstill at this minute in time.”
Gemma Antrobus, owner of Haselmere Travel and chair of Aito Agents, said: “This is welcome news. And the announcement that it’s going to have travel people involved is obviously hugely positive for us in the industry, because that’s what we’ve all been shouting about for such a long time.
“We have ideas, we have possible solutions, we have ways to not keep spending so much money, and if we’d have been listened to a lot sooner, I’m not sure if we would be in the position we are now. My hope is that they listen to the experts of the industry.
“There has been some amazing work done in the last seven months in order to take to government to try and help with situations like these which, thus far, no-one’s even bothered to even listen to or look at. So the work is there; the people are there, we’re willing, we will do it.”
Antrobus added: “We’re just waiting to see who that might be. And I just hope it’s not going to be made up of ministers who really don’t have a grip on what’s going on or, as Brian alluded to, a single sector, because a lot of people do see travel as being purely aviation.
“It’s not. It is a major part of what we do but there are so many other facets, and just taking into consideration one element of this is not sufficient.”