Travel industry leaders have expressed alarm at the growing impacts of Brexit, with the head of the UKinbound association declaring the sector has suffered “massive” damage, not least from ministers’ refusal to recognise European Union ID cards at the UK border.
UKinbound chief executive Joss Croft said: “The removal of ID cards [recognition at the border] has massively damaged a billion-pound sector. It has dragged down the whole inbound sector.
“The recovery rate for youth and student travel from the EU last year was 16% [of the 2019 level].”
Speaking at the annual Travlaw Big Tent Event in London, Croft argued: “I can’t believe it was the intention of the Brexit referendum vote to stop 14-year-old Italian students coming to Britain.”
But he added: “The biggest impact of Brexit has been around mobility. The skills we need and the staff we need are not available.
“To be a world class destination in a globally competitive industry we need people who can greet people in their own language. We don’t do languages well here and we’re suffering badly.”
Croft noted: “I’ve spent a lot of my working life promoting the UK and if people feel welcome in a destination, they are twice as likely to come again.
“In 2013 we ranked 11th in the world for our welcome. We are now 18th. I’m not saying that is all due to Brexit, but it’s a fact that people felt they wouldn’t be welcome [because of Brexit].”
Business Travel Association chief executive Clive Wratten agreed with Croft, saying: “A lot of the issues are around staffing and being able to move people around Europe. SMEs are struggling with the rules and with visa requirements.”
Wratten also identified “a big area around meetings and events” in the EU, with businesses no longer able to reclaim VAT on these, saying: “That adds 20% on everything.”
He argued: “It’s damaging our reputation and it means British businesses have to work a lot harder.
Wratten noted: “We said we would worry about Brexit when the time came. Well, we’re starting to worry now.”
Separately, Advantage Travel Partnership chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said there was no evidence to show that Brexit had delivered any benefit to UK travellers.
The comment came on the third anniversary of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.
She insisted that much of the disruption caused by Brexit had been masked by the pandemic.
But Loe Bue-Said said: “What we do know is that three years later, our ability to travel frictionlessly has been taken away.
“Brexit has delivered no evidence of benefit for travellers. We’ve seen long queues at airports and the issues relating to the validity of passports has resulted in British and European travellers having to spend an extortionate amount of money on passports and getting caught out on passport validity rules.”
She added: “The hospitality industry generally, which has always relied heavily on skilled labour from EU countries, has been greatly affected by staff shortages which is being further compounded by fears that that rising costs in the UK could deter tourists from visiting Britain.”
The independent travel agency consortium chief called on the government to focus its attention on “ensuring we use the opportunity to reduce the web of complex consumer and financial protection regulation that has been borne out of Brexit”.