ABTA are calling on its Scottish members to write to parliament in an attempt to secure funding for the travel sector.
This comes after Scotlands alined with England and Northern Ireland on the removal of covid travel testing for arrivals.
Despite this great news, travel agencies and the travel industry as a whole are still feeling the overall affects from the pandemic which is left many short on staff and operating a reduced service.
Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA – The Travel Association said:
“It is great to see that travel requirements will be relaxed in Scotland along with the rest of the UK. However, Ministers must acknowledge the devastating impact Omicron had on Scotland’s outbound travel trade by providing similar financial support to that already offered to other sectors of the economy, including inbound and domestic tourism businesses.”
“The Scottish Government announced £375 million in funding to help businesses who have been affected by advice and restrictions put in place in response to the Omicron variant. Yet, to date, the outbound travel industry, has not seen a penny of this financial support. That is despite travel businesses having lost the important Christmas and New Year trading period, and being the only sector of the Scottish economy that has faced constant restrictions, in one form or another, since March 2020.”
“It is urgent that this support is made available to travel agents and tour operators in Scotland, similar to the schemes available to businesses in England and Wales. ”
“ABTA is providing travel agents and tour operators with template letters to urge their Member of Scottish Parliament to support our calls that funding be made available to travel businesses who operate overseas trips. There is also a similar letter for businesses based in Northern Ireland to write to Members of the Legislative Assembly. ABTA is continuing to urge the Ministers in both nations to act”
The letters can be found at abta.com/savefuturetravel
