The Advantage Travel Partnership has said plans for a UK Outbound Travel Forum took a positive step forward after a “useful” meeting in Westminster.
Chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said met with seven bodies interested in the creation of a dedicated association for the outbound travel sector and former Conservative MP Steven Norris – who was minister for transport in London in the 1990s – in his office on Monday afternoon (March 7).
While Lo Bue-Said told Travel Weekly proposals for such a body are still in the “exploratory stages”, she said getting interested parties in a room together to discuss plans was a valuable exercise.
More: Advantage holds first meeting over Outbound Travel Forum plans
“It was a very beneficial meeting,” she said. “None of us have the answers right now and we don’t yet know what the solutions are, but it gave us the chance to have a face-to-face conversation and benefit from Steven’s vast expertise.
“It was really useful and insightful and it’s given us plenty of food for thought.”
Attendees discussed the objectives of the proposed forum, which is intended to help lobby the government for more support for the sector when it’s most needed.
“One of the aims of the meeting was to agree on some key objectives for the forum,” explained Lo Bue-Said. “These will become clearer once we’ve received more feedback from interested organisations and learn how much funding we have at our disposal.
“We agreed that we need to build a shared cross-industry data pool so that we’re all using the same figures when lobbying the government, which will help us articulate the value of the sector. Currently it’s very piecemeal, which makes it difficult to highlight its importance and scale.”
Lo Bue-Said first proposed the forum in December and urged travel industry stakeholders to assist in funding a “war chest” to pay for “heavyweight” lobbying of the government.
She emphasised the need for the dedicated association which would operate alongside UKInbound, a trade association founded in 1977 that represents the interests of the UK’s inbound tourism businesses.
“We want to ensure the sector has a strong, coherent voice through any public health crisis or geopolitical situation, such as the one we’re in now, and that the government understands the value placed upon the sector,” added Lo Bue-Said.
“The ability to engage with government and have a concise cross-industry message is so important. We feel the government doesn’t really understand our sector, especially when it comes to outbound travel.
“We’ve seen over the last two years that the voice of our sector hasn’t been properly heard and we haven’t engaged at the right levels of government. We need to be prepared for whatever is around the corner, whether it’s another public health crisis or geopolitical situation.”