Spiralling energy bills will deter would-be entrepreneurs from opening new travel agencies on the high street, according to the president of Barrhead Travel.
Speaking at the Travel Weekly Business Breakfast at Abta’s Travel Convention in Marrakech, Jacqueline Dobson revealed she had recently signed a four-year deal with her company’s energy supplier so that energy costs across her branch network are fixed.
She confirmed this meant her supplier would have to absorb any incremental charges.
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However, she expressed concern that others would find rising costs a real obstacle, and said: “I think the government needs to come out with a package of help and support on business rates.”
But former Der Touristik UK chief Derek Jones did not hold out much hope for government intervention amid so much turbulence.
“The idealogues are the ones left in charge and the City doesn’t like that. We don’t want the Bank of England having to intervene to correct political decision-making.”
He added: “I read an article about the government recently which said ‘The ringmaster has left the circus and the lions are now eating the clowns’ and warned: “If things do spiral, then this administration won’t last. They can only run so far [before a general election is called].
Speaking later that morning, ex-MP and Tory Party leadership contender Rory Stewart was asked if the Conservatives could win the next general election and replied by saying he did not think they could.
But commenting on whether the previous administration could have done more to support the travel industry during the Covid pandemic, Jones said: “I don’t think any of them [politicians] intentionally ignored the travel industry.
“They were hit by a crisis of a proportion that they totally didn’t anticipate. Travel is our life, but it’s not their life and they had a lot of other decisions to make. We have to stop the stone-throwing.”
Asked if the industry did a good enough job at defending its corner and lobbying the government effectively, Jones said: “It’s pie in the sky to think that during the crisis, we were all going to come together.
“We have to make ourselves heard and ensure we’re on the government’s agenda, but to think we can all have exactly the same demands, is just a fairy-tale.”
Dobson added: “I don’t think the government understood the industry quick enough.
“They focused only on aviation and not the rest of the industry. We did a lot of lobbying with the Scottish government and were successful in the end.”