Abta and the Advantage Travel Partnership remain at loggerheads over lobbying, with Advantage chief Julia Lo-Bue Said committed to establishing a new outbound industry body and Abta insisting “we don’t need another organisation”.
Lo-Bue Said stressed the need for a new organisation when she addressed the Travlaw Big Tent Event in London last week, saying: “Politicians don’t understand the value of the outbound market. They don’t.”
She recalled that during the Covid crisis: “We needed to be as strong and visible as we could [and] we were going to be vocal. We took the view there is no such thing as enough lobbying.
More: Advantage and Aito ‘engage’ with government over sector’s challenges
“We have plans for an outbound travel industry group and we’re looking to take that forward.”
Advantage joined independent operators’ association Aito in a new lobbying partnership in October. Both remain members, with Abta, of the 15-strong Future Travel Coalition set up during the pandemic to represent the industry to government. The coalition includes the Business Travel Association (BTA), cruise association CLIA, Scottish agents’ association SPAA, Northern Ireland agents’ association ANITA, The Travel Network Group and UKinbound.
Lo Bue-Said described the partnership with Aito as “just the start”, saying: “We have plans to do more. It’s a long-term game. We take our mandate from our members and 90% of my members felt we weren’t represented to government.”
She insisted: “There isn’t a monopoly on lobbying or having more than one voice.”
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer acknowledged: “Julia and I part company on this. Every organisation should be speaking out for its members, but we don’t need another organisation.
“If you talk to the Treasury, ministers, the [transport] select committee, our messages got through. But public health trumped the travel industry. We were there representing three facets of the industry [outbound, inbound and corporate] and the message got through.”
He argued: “The Future Travel Coalition allows different views to breathe. We have a broad church. Not everyone is going to agree on everything, but we found common cause. I’m not sure what another organisation is going to achieve.”
However, Lo-Bue Said argued: “The Future of Travel is a talking shop. There is huge amount of value in that. But we don’t have an outbound lobbying association. We’re looking at something that doesn’t exist. There are other organisations interested.”
She insisted: “I’m not naïve. When you try to introduce something that some people feel is stepping on others’ toes, there might be opposition. [But] I take my mandate from my members. You can’t lobby enough.”
Sector needs to target civil servants
Industry lobbying efforts need to address senior civil servants more than rely on meeting ministers, according to Business Travel Association (BTA) chief executive Clive Wratten.
He told the Travlaw event: “Talking to ministers and MPs, I’ve learned the most important people to get to are the civil servants, the permanent under-secretaries. Ministers come and go.”
Wratten defended the industry’s pandemic-era lobbying, saying: “I’m proud of what we achieved.
“Don’t forget, this country was the first to remove all restrictions. It didn’t happen quickly enough, but it did happen.
“Clearly, we have a long way to go. We’ve a huge task to get the value of business travel across to the government.”
UKinbound chief executive Joss Croft agreed, saying: “Were we successful in getting the financial assistance we needed? No. Were we successful in getting our message across? Yes.
“In Scotland, we received three tranches of assistance. Our message was the same south of the border, so was it the message or who received the message? It’s not just about the arguments we made.”
He noted: “There are areas where we can speak with a single voice. But I don’t care about the Foreign Office, just as Abta and the BTA don’t care about visa issues for Indian visitors.”
Croft added: “It has been a real positive working with other associations, and we’ll take that forward.”