Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of The Advantage Partnership has hit out at negative press surrounding summer travel.
The Advantage Partnership have released a statement outlining the results of the recent commons transport committee report, and how the media coverage has affected the industry.
‘The challenging circumstances currently surrounding the travel industry are being felt far and wide by many types of businesses across the industry.’ the statement read,
‘The new report by the commons transport committee acknowledges the difficult position faced by government but also the inconsistent approach which left passengers in turmoil and an industry still reeling from disproportionate travel restrictions.
It’s important to note that the industry’s unravelling is very much a reflection of where we have come from: an industry shut down; repatriation of thousands upon thousands of people overseas as borders were closed by the hour; cash burn at a staggering rate of hundreds of millions per week – BA alone reported over £170m; and many other businesses of all sizes, my members included, forced to cut costs to save their businesses and future jobs.
All of this, as the committee report has shown, with very little government support to help the industry cope.
Just six weeks ago, on 18th March 2022, the government dropped all Covid travel restrictions for UK arrivals.
It takes much longer than six weeks to rebuild an entire industry. It takes even longer to build the image for outbound travel as a vibrant sector anyone would want to be reemployed into, and it takes much more than a busy Easter weekend to rebuild businesses.
And we must remember, these businesses are not faceless companies, and not just aviation – the industry lost over 200k people through redundancies over the course of the past two years. Behind every outbound travel business there are real people, exhausted, exasperated, and all they want to do is get back to working in an industry they love.
Whilst it’s not the government’s responsibility to rebuild the sector, it is in their gift to ensure they support its recovery by:
• recognising the significance of the UK outbound travel sector as a key economic and social and cultural driver
• recognising the vibrancy of the sector as what was once a world class industry
• recognising outbound travel in and of itself as a business sector in its own right
• recognising the wider ecosystem that puts people on trains, ships, planes and not just the transport element
• supporting the promotion of jobs and advocacy as a sector to help build careers
• recognising the breadth of product available across the outbound travel sector and the unique financial protection available to consumers
• recognising the role the UK outbound sector can play for global Britain
• recognising the significant role the outbound travel sector can play in supporting the delivery of sustainability goals.
Now is not the time to put the industry under the bus with attention-grabbing headlines, but to recognise the detrimental impact unnecessary restrictions had on an entire eco system and what it is going to take to regenerate the industry.’
