23/06/2021
Today we stand united with our colleagues across the entire travel industry for the ‘Travel Day of Action’.
This is a day of action where the travel and aviation industry is calling for greater support from the government to allow a safe return to travel. An industry which has never seen such high demand from customers wanting to travel, yet are unable.
An industry which continued to support customers throughout the pandemic, even though in March last year not only had to stop, but also had to refund all of it’s customers who had booked a holiday in the lead up to this point.
An industry which continues to help and support customers today, one which needs to keep planes serviced and ready to fly, pilots trained and certified, airports open ready to operate, hotels operational even at a fraction of capacity and the list goes on.
The travel industry already operates in a highly regulated way to ensure customers are fully protected. Meaning that when someone books a holiday, each supplier of that holiday is not receiving it’s money until the customer goes on holiday.
Therefore the biggest support the travel industry needs right now is the ability to allow customers to travel to safe destinations. Airports, airlines and travel have possibly never been safer.
Destination countries, resorts and hotels have worked hard to ensure that customers are protected. With more testing and safety measures in place than you would have when travelling within the UK, the evidence and science is suggesting that travel right now is safe.
Therefore the industry is not asking the government to go against the science, but to simply follow the logic, the evidence and the customer demand in allowing a safe return to travel as a priority as part of the The Global Travel Taskforce traffic-light system.
Customers can continue to support the travel industry by booking their holidays, safe in the knowledge that ABTA and ATOL means their money is safe, they are getting some of the best deals ever seen in travel, but also knowing they are doing their bit to help the industry.
Clearly, we (the travel industry) are not the only industry heavily affected by the pandemic and we support every industry and every person who has also been affected. But travel is one of those industries which does unite us all, and today we ask for the support of everyone by asking the government to support the industry.
