Communicating significant government announcements to the industry on social media has been condemned by the trade.
Gold Medal Travel managing director Lisa McAuley said any business leader who tweeted policy changes in the way the government had announced its traffic light updates would be “fired” in the real world.
Many in the trade were critical of the timing of the latest traffic light changes announcement – at 10pm on Wednesday – after the government had previously said the update would come on Thursday.
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This follows a series of traffic light changes being announced on Twitter by transport secretary Grant Shapps before being communicated to the industry. This method was also used during the ‘travel corridors’ era of 2020, with the unspecified time of the announcement – typically on Thursday evening – cynically labelled ‘Shapp’s O’Clock’.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast after the latest announcement, McAuley said: “Any business leader knows that communication is a number one priority. It’s the key to running a successful business. If the government was a business, they would all be fired by now.
“There is no way we, as an industry, should be finding out about policy or changes via social media.”
But she said the industry had no choice but to accept the way the government was making its announcements. “It is what it is,” she added.
Caribtours manging director Paul Cleary agreed that way traffic light updated have been communicated demonstrated “almost casual disdain” on the government’s part.