Comment: Abta’s strong relationship with Foreign Office delivers results

Susan Deer, director of industry relations at the association, says collaboration among association staff, members and the government leads to wide-ranging benefits

Over many years, Abta has developed a mutually beneficial and supportive relationship with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

This relationship is particularly important in the event of a crisis, when both organisations take an active role in disseminating information, sharing advice and ensuring that comments to the media are properly informed.

The FCDO’s 24-hour Global Response Centre (GRC) and Abta’s destinations team have an excellent working relationship and meet regularly. In addition, Abta also collaborates with members, local authorities and the FCDO crisis team when required. An example of this was during the Rhodes wildfires, when our out-of-hours crisis team convened a number of key stakeholder conference calls at short notice as the situation escalated over the weekend period. As part of business-as-usual, Abta also participates in FCDO-led crisis simulations and discussions, gaining invaluable experience and preparedness for future crisis events.

Abta facilitates resort committees in destinations around the world where a number of Abta members meet to address operational concerns and issues that may be affecting customers. FCDO consular representatives regularly attend these meetings, giving them an opportunity to gain essential background information and a forum to work in collaboration with members.

Abta participates in working group meetings and consultations with the FCDO to discuss specific subjects while providing our members’ views and industry insights to the government. Both Abta and the FCDO’s Prevent team are active on social media with a range of safety campaigns and regularly support each other’s safety messaging. Feedback from Abta members is integral to shaping advice and messaging. Examples of where we have worked together include balcony safety, advice for young travellers, swimming safety and the importance of taking out the right type of travel insurance. This joint work has the advantage of providing greatly amplified authority and credibility, ensuring wider coverage in the media and reaching a greater number of the general public.

At Abta’s recent crisis-training event, the FCDO director of Consular and Crisis provided the keynote speech, sharing insights with delegates on the role of FCDO travel advice, the role of consular teams in destination to support British nationals and the importance of the FCDO and industry working together both during and post-crisis. All of which was extremely well received.

Abta routinely disseminates important information on a variety of issues to members via our operational bulletins. Some examples of these include additional information on adverse weather events or operational crises, along with any changes to the FCDO travel advice. We have a great collaborative working relationship with the FCDO’s travel advice team and regularly liaise with them on their country information pages content – such as changes to entry requirements or a need for clarification on specific wording. All of which helps us to provide informative, specific messaging to members.

Engagement and collaboration among ourselves, our members and the FCDO is longstanding, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank members of the FCDO teams past and present, who continue to play an essential role in safeguarding British nationals overseas.