UKHospitality boss Kate Nicholls OBE has advised the travel industry to find key areas to work together on and “get the narrative right” in its government lobbying efforts.
The hospitality body was created five years ago to represent the sector, previously represented by 10 trade associations, because of concerns the industry was being overlooked by government.
“We had a fragmented industry,” she said, speaking at The Advantage Travel Partnership’s annual conference in Benidorm on May 21.
“There was recognition we were not going to get cut through unless the industry could speak with one voice and after many years of trying to get that coordinated message to government the decision was made to merge trade bodies representing pubs, bars, and hotels.”
Nicholls, who noted similar frustrations were driving efforts to get a united focus for the outbound travel sector, said UKHospitality now has 700 member companies operating 120,000 venues, representing 95% of the sector, both employees and operators.
She said it was critical travel associations found common ground to be united on and said it was important the united body was sizeable in itself and made enough ‘noise’ through lobbying to get noticed by government.
Having the evidence and data to back up arguments was also critical, she said, as well as ensuring the body’s goals meet with the government’s own objectives.
Nicholls said: “It’s not just about getting the noise out. How you articulate it to align with government priorities matters.
“Our role and focus is to promote the reputation of the sector to grow. We are relentlessly optimistic about that. No-one is saying ‘that is a dying industry’.
“Insights from customers allow us to push down that door with government. We are not going in front loaded and saying ‘we need help to survive’. We say if you gave us this, we can deliver against your objectives.”
Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said the pandemic had “shone a light” on the need for the outbound travel sector to present itself “in the right way with the right narrative” to government.
She added: “I get really inspired speaking to Kate. We don’t have an outbound voice that speaks on the behalf of the sector. We have an opportunity now to unite the sector collaboratively.”