Abta chief Mark Tanzer dismissed the need for a new outbound travel group to represent the sector to government ahead of a meeting to discuss proposals for such a body last week.
He told Travel Weekly: “The Future Travel Coalition we created through Covid is a single outbound voice. It brings together 16 different bodies, all with a slightly different angle on outbound tourism and international travel. They’re different associations for a reason, but we’ve shown we’re able to work together on what we have in common.”
The Advantage Travel Partnership reported a strong turnout at last week’s meeting with “representation across the industry”, but gave no further details. It said it would work to establish the next steps and “consider how the sector builds its political engagement”.
Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said, who has championed an outbound lobby group, said: “It was great to speak to a wide range of industry leaders and get their views on how the industry is represented.
“The feedback suggests more can and should be done to raise the industry’s profile, but the vehicle needs greater thought.”
Future Travel Coalition members – including Abta, Advantage, The Travel Network Group, Aito, the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, the Business Travel Association, Clia and UKinbound – vowed to maintain their joint lobbying efforts last month.
Tanzer said: “The coalition was very effective through Covid. We organised the day of action. We harmonised what we said so the industry couldn’t be accused of saying different things. Members want it to continue.”
He argued: “The problem is not that the industry needs another voice, it’s that the government needs someone responsible for international travel. We’ve been saying that for a long time. It doesn’t mean a dedicated minister.
It means someone who has international travel within their ministerial responsibilities because it is so important to the UK as well as to our industry.”
Tanzer added: “MPs say our voice is very well heard in government. The problem isn’t that we’re not heard, it’s that sometimes the government doesn’t want to do what we want.”