The Latin American Travel Association (Lata) is calling on UK members to write to their MP to highlight the travel industry’s plight, especially as the end of furlough “will be a crisis point”.
The call comes as chancellor Rishi Sunak wrote to the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Future of Aviation to say sector-specific suport for any sector would be “challenging”.
Danny Callaghan, Lata chief executive, said: “We find ourselves in a ridiculous situation, where as an industry we are completely in the dark about the strategy for travel.
“We are open in every other sector, particularly in England, so the government has adopted the principle of life returning to normal in a world with Covid, yet they continue to stifle international travel without actually explaining the rationale.
“It is ok, even encouraged, for Brits to go to places like Cornwall, which have seen huge rates of Covid transmission, but impossible for them to visit the open wilderness of the Torres del Paine national park in Chile. I know which I’d recommend as safer.
“Germany has a traffic light system for international travel but has no country on the red list.
“How can it be that the UK sees so many risks that the Germans don’t? You can’t accuse Germany of complacency, so why the disparity?”
He said the demise of the furlough scheme at the end of September is “a critical time for the industry” as travel operators could be forced out of business.
“They can’t afford to bring staff back from furlough but also don’t have the funds to make them redundant,” he warned.
“The Treasury is going to be picking up not only that bill, but the government-underwritten element of CBILS (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme) loans, as well as having to potentially fund refunds out of the Air Travel Trust.
“You’d think the Treasury would be able to put two and two together and realise the severity of the situation to the UK economy.
“As party conference season approaches, I’ve asked Lata members and their teams to write to their constituency MP to highlight the challenges and demand answers to the government’s approach and strategy.
“As time is precious, we’ve drafted a template letter for members to use so that they can quickly and easily contact their MP.”
The letter template is available for anyone to download and can be found here.