Government needs to recognise the importance of the sector, says former Travel Republic managing director Frank Rejwan
It’s time.
The UK travel industry has, frankly, not helped itself or endeared itself to the public over the last year and a half.
At times it has been downright selfish, introspective and utterly stubborn.
Tour operators, travel agents, airlines and accommodation providers have blatantly broken rules in regards to package travel regulations and consumer rights, have been called out by watchdog bodies and slapped on the wrist by the CAA and the CMA for holding on to clients’ money, refusing refunds, offering only credit vouchers, not communicating with customers and passing on blame to those further down the supply chain (with a small number of notable exceptions).
These activities, in the first year or so of the pandemic, hardly provided cause for sympathy.
Politicians were running round in circles, dealing with clamours for help across the whole leisure and hospitality sector, from restaurants and pubs to theatres and live venues, while at the same time prioritising – rightly so – the health and safety of the nation.
They argued that the overall package of support for businesses was providing plenty of help for the travel sector, along with all the others. The calls for ‘sector-specific’ help from the travel industry, like the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme for the restaurant industry, were always bound to fall on deaf ears.
BUT…
The reality is that the travel industry is somewhat different to others in the hospitality and leisure space, which have also suffered terribly.
The nature of the travel industry is that cash is taken upfront for holidays and business travel. Suppliers such as airlines and accommodation providers are paid upfront. And profit margins are extremely tight.
The March 2020 timing of the pandemic in terms of cashflow was also terrible, with up to 25% of travel businesses’ annual sales being taken during January and February each year, and the Atol bonding ‘pot’ already under severe pressure following multiple past industry failures.
During my time leading various travel firms, I have had to deal with fallouts from the collapses of Thomas Cook (we had to refund or rearrange over 35,000 forward bookings that were flying with their airline), Monarch Airlines and various other airlines, as well as a volcanic ash cloud and other ‘incidents’.
However, having left my role as managing director of a leading OTA (online travel agent) in March 2020, I can’t pretend I’m not slightly relieved I haven’t had to deal with the operational and financial implications of the Covid pandemic.
While the furlough scheme, government loans and rates cuts will have provided some support, the reality for the travel sector is that firms have to retain staff in order to process refunds and cancellations, deal with customer service queries and operational updates – all while bringing in no significant revenue.
Our government has also shown little ability to engage with the industry throughout the pandemic and, even with the recent engagement of a Global Travel Taskforce, clearly has much work to do on its listening and communication skills – let alone ability to implement change.
Our secretary of state for transport, Grant Shapps, has consistently demonstrated limited (at best) knowledge of the workings of the industry, and our aviation minister, Robert Courts, seems to have other priorities on a daily basis.
With the recent to-ing and fro-ing of traffic light systems and rules, knee-jerk changes of what countries are on what list, and other countries opening up to travel much faster than the UK, the UK travel industry is falling even further behind, and is now seriously on its knees.
And that is an industry worth around £37bn to the UK economy and supporting an estimated 3.9 million jobs.
SO…
It is clear the data is now showing the effectiveness of the vaccines. It is clear there are significant safety measures in place across the travel ‘journey’. It is clear we are now eating in restaurants and allowing thousands of fans to congregate at sporting events (hooray!). It is clear there are destinations with risk levels far lower than those in the UK, but yet remain on the amber list.
It is time for the government to recognise the importance of this sector and the damage it has caused to it to date.
It is time to open up.