Abta has appealed to the government for help with ongoing short and long-term issues that face the travel sector as Rishi Sunak’s premiership gets under way.
In his latest blog post, published today (October 27), the association’s chief executive Mark Tanzer said the trade body looked forward to working with new transport secretary Mark Harper and “building upon” its relationship with business secretary Grant Shapps, who previously oversaw the travel brief.
Working in partnership with the government was an important part of Abta’s lobbying activities, Tanzer added.
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He highlighted how the government’s climate change policy was of interest to Abta as the industry needed government support to ensure the UK was “a world leader” in decarbonisation.
Tanzer also noted how the review of Package Travel Regulations and business relations would be discussed with Shapps and his team.
Abta is part of the Future Travel Collation which has a set of lobbying priorities that it is working towards. A number of other travel firms – including the Advantage Travel Partnership, Aito, the Business Travel Partnership and The Travel Network Group – are also in the coalition.
These collation’s priorities include “demonstrating the value of international travel to politicians”, “helping businesses through the cost-of-living crisis” and promoting the industry as an “attractive place to work”.
“These are the policy areas we will be focusing on in the coming weeks and months, but there are also others Abta is addressing which are outside the coalition, including outstanding issues from the UK’s departure from the EU,” Tanzer added.
Findings from a survey of travel businesses – carried out by the coalition last month – have been handed to the government, Tanzer confirmed.
The survey looked at how businesses fared during the first summer of trade since the pandemic.
Tanzer added: “The findings recognise that while trading was much improved this summer, compared to 2020 and 2021, challenges still lie ahead for travel companies, particularly in servicing debt taken on during the pandemic and with the rising cost of living and operations.”