NI Travel Agents’ lobbying group ANITA brings plight of travel agents to ‘sympathetic’ Stormont Executive who “have all agreed to help… get the urgent need for financial help that the travel industry has to the ears of the people who may be able to help.”
The Travel Industry in Northern Ireland has been one of the hardest hit industries throughout the coronavirus pandemic. With borders closed across the globe and most travel being all but ruled out for 2020, the local industry is crying out for help from the government.
ABTA says 39,000 jobs have been lost or are at risk across the UK outbound travel sector since the Covid-19 crisis started, with the number rising to a staggering 90,000 when supply chains are taken into account.
With the Government failing to uphold its promises to the travel industry, many travel businesses have been barely surviving, with the only financial help currently available to employees being the furlough scheme, which is due to end in October.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak previously pledged to do “whatever it takes” to keep people in work by considering “a few months additional support for staff in the travel industry”, however so far this “additional support” has not been forthcoming.
Now, two local travel agents – Damian Murphy of Terra Travel and Richard Cooper of Carefree Travel – have have taken matters in their own hands, coming together to create a new lobbying body, ANITA (Association of Northern Ireland Travel Agents), which aims to be a local voice for the industry in Northern Ireland.
In little more than a week since its formation the group already had 36 agency owners as well as many home workers, travel counsellors and others directly involved in retail travel adding their voice and support to the cause.
Damian Murphy of Terra Travel said: “For too long now the Northern Ireland travel industry has had no single voice to represent them, and with the ongoing Covid 19 situation our industry is having the toughest time in its history.
“Since March of this year we have been left with no income whatsoever and we are indeed in the unique position of having to repay most of what we earned in the previous 6 months back to the tour operators.
“While bookings for 2021 are steady, we simply pass the deposits taken on these to the tour operators for now once again leaving us with no income.
“We decided we must bring the situation to the attention of the Northern Ireland Executive as soon as possible and have been getting everyone involved in our industry to get on board and contact their local political representatives with a view to getting a meeting with both the economy and finance ministers. We are currently making progress in this but the we cannot stress enough the urgency of the matter. We are trying to protect as many jobs as possible in the industry and believe a tailored package targeted to the outgoing travel sector is the only way forward.
“Our industry plays a very valuable part in the local economy and is extremely important to the survival of the local high street. I am certain with the right help we can protect many jobs and and return to helping many people with all sorts of travel plans as we have done for many years.
“Over the weekend contact has been made with John O’Dowd, Carla Lockhart and indeed Arlene Foster. All were surprised at the complexity of our situation and admitted they had not been fully aware of the workings of cancelled holidays and refunds.
“When we fully explained that not only can we not do any business going forward but we have had to pay back a lot of what we have earned over the past 12 months they were indeed more sympathetic to our case.
“They have all agreed to help us get the urgent need for financial help that the travel industry has to the ears of the people who may be able to help.”
