32 TRADE NEWS


Industry Standard ‘We’re Good To Go’ Restored Faith In NI’s Hospitality T


HE UK wide industry-standard, following a successful campaign. The standard which was introduced in July 2020


when organisations were struggling to adjust to new regulations allowed businesses to demonstrate the Covid-19 protocols they had put in place to keep both staff and visitors safe while the hospitality sector moved to reopening.


“It has been tough, we had to adjust and review our operating procedures and various range of risk assessments,” said Pim Dalm, the Managing Director of Clandeboye Lodge Hotel in Bangor County Down. With the help of the ‘We’re Good To Go’ accreditation, Clandeboye Lodge Hotel was able to maintain a safe environment for its staff.


“We felt it was very important to make sure that our


staff felt confident that as business owners we had taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the environment in which they were either interacting with guests or interacting amongst each other was as safe as could possibly be.”


Looking back on the unpredictability the tourism sector was facing at the time, Dermot Friel, owner of Friel’s Bar and Restaurant explained the importance of safety for organised trips. “Tour operators wanted to know if their guests and visitors were going to be looked after in a safe environment. That was one of their first questions, were we ‘Good To Go’ accredited?” he recalled. Fortunately, the success of the initiative allowed mAny local businesses to safely reopen their premises and welcome visitors and guests after a long period of uncertainty.


For Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, the We’re


THE Save Future Travel Coalition have agreed to keep working together, and the group will now be known as the Future Travel Coalition.


We’re


Good to Go, which has supported businesses throughout the pandemic has been phased out


June 2022 Travel News


Good To Go accreditation meant that Northern Ireland’s primary royal residence could start planning for the future. “Being declared Good To Go was peace of mind that you were safe at work and that you can provide a safe experience for your visitors.


“The We’re Good To Go campaign was an incredibly important part of our discussions with international vendors about our 2022 calendar and for trying to build back up to our pre covid business levels,” said Christine Grant, Palace Host Team Leader of Hillsborough Castle and Gardens. Examining the consumer confidence, propensity to travel and consumer concerns at the time, Tourism NI’s Consumer Sentiment Analysis gave exceptional insight into the success of the We’re Good To Go initiative. Only a few months after launching the initiative, by


March 2021, almost a quarter of NI consumers (23%) were aware of the ‘We’re Good to Go Mark’. For the vast majority (92%) who were aware of it, this mark gave them confidence that a business was safe to visit. The same research confirmed that when restrictions eased, two- thirds of NI consumers would be more inclined to visit a business that displayed the mark over one that didn’t. Tourism NI’s CEO John McGrillen said: “The ‘We’re Good to Go’ scheme was vital for businesses as it reassured visitors that they had put the necessary arrangements in place to deal with Covid safely. That consumer confidence was a critical part of driving consumer demand. “I am exceptionally proud of the industry for their collective effort and investment to ensure guests felt safe when visiting their experiences and attractions. This is testament to the resilience and strength of character of the wonderful people we have working within the sector across Northern Ireland.


Trade Partners Re-Commit to Future Travel Coalition •


Keep Travel Alive


The Coalition will continue to work together on shared lobbying goals and challenges, both relating to the pandemic and other policy priorities, to ensure a coordinated industry voice and message to government. The Coalition partners meet on a monthly basis and recent joint activity includes the industry survey to monitor bookings trends and challenges within the UK travel industry, which will enable evidence to be shared with officials and Ministers and inform upcoming political engagement. The change of name reflects that the industry is now in a recovery phase following the impact of the pandemic and the longer-term commitment of the existing partners to keep working together to promote the interests of the travel industry.


Background to the Coalition The Save Future Travel Coalition was officially formed in summer 2020, to ensure a consistent and coordinated voice during the pandemic. Many of the organisations had been working together informally since the start of the pandemic and the Coalition was established to formalise this collaboration and to create a forum to share insights and plan activity. The Coalition brings together 16 leading travel associations, consortiums and other bodies from across the organised travel sector, representing a large proportion of the market including leisure and business travel, inbound and outbound operations. The bodies are: • • • • •


ABTA – The Travel Association


AITO – The Specialist Travel Association Advantage Travel Partnership


African Travel & Tourism Association (ATTA)


Association of Northern Ireland Travel Agents (ANITA)


• •


•


Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (ATAS)


The Business Travel Association (BTA)


Cruise Lines International Association UK & Ireland (CLIA)


• • • •


Latin American Travel Association (LATA) Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)


Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBIT)


• The Travel Network Group (TTNG) •


UKinbound


Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA – The Travel Association said “The Coalition has been an invaluable forum throughout the pandemic to enable the industry to share insights and coordinate our lobbying messaging and asks.


“Throughout the pandemic we’ve been able to gather and disseminate evidence on the latest situation facing the travel sector, and we’ve come together on a number of joint lobbying initiatives.


Adding that, “Continuing our work together into the future will ensure we continue to exchange intelligence, coordinate messaging and add our combined weight to our arguments and lobbying asks. From the outset it was clear the Coalition was something that would have value beyond the pandemic. Changing the name reflects that the industry is now in the recovery phase and is a sign of our joint commitment to build on the progress we’ve made in improving cross-industry lobbying collaboration.” Mike Tibbert, President of the SPAA stated “The governments within the UK have taken different approaches throughout the pandemic so it has been extremely helpful to be able to work together, sharing knowledge and updates, and combining our efforts to bring about change on behalf of all of our members and work towards a four-nation approach. We’re keen to continue to work together this way in the future.” Joss Croft, Chief Executive of UKInbound commented “Outbound and inbound travel have experienced similar challenges throughout the pandemic so it has been good to be able to work collectively to address them. There are issues outside of the pandemic including around employing UK staff in the EU and vice versa now that we’re no longer in the European Union, again, being able to tackle these together adds weight to our efforts.”


NI Travel Trade Take to the Seas with Royal Caribbean NI Travel News were delighted to take to the seas for a momentous occasion of enormous size. The world’s newest wonder, Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas, arrived in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday 4 May, to kick off a summer full of memorable holidays in Europe. The now worlds largest cruise ship holds an impressive


Carribean’s Wonder of the Seas has to offer.


6,988 passengers, along with 2,300 crew members, who will get to experience Europe and America this year for the ships first sailings at sea. NI Travel News’ Erin English hopped onboard


Wonder of the Seas on Wednesday 4 May, and Jonathan Adair followed on 6th May, to celebrate its inaugural sailing and European debut.


It was great to catch up with local Travel Trade onboard and the fantastic Royal Caribbean team. Visit www.nitravelnews.com/gallery/ to spot at some of the local travel trade scoping out all that Royal


NI Travel Trade Explore Wonder


G Adventures Welcomes Jen Watson G Adventures Welcomes New


Addition To UK Sales Team GLOBAL adventure


operator, G Adventures,


welcomes Jen Watson to its team of UK Global Purpose Specialists (GPS). Glasgow-based Watson joins G Adventures with over 16 years of experience within the travel industry, and will support G Adventures’ agent community across the north of England, Ireland and Scotland. “As part of our regrowth strategy, G Adventures will be working more closely than ever with our travel agent community as we look to connect travellers with their long-awaited adventures. Our GPS team play a pivotal role in supporting agents in everything from training to marketing and Jen’s experience and people skills make her the perfect person for the job,” says Stu Darnley, national sales manager at G Adventures. “We’re seeing increased demand from agents wanting


more in-person meetings and our GPS team are now back on the road, nurturing those face to face relationships, helping with training and speaking with customers to help raise awareness around the benefits of adventure and touring,” Darnley continued.


Starting her career with Thomas Cook, Jen’s passion


for the travel industry was cemented working overseas in Portugal,Tenerife and Cyprus before taking a role at Walt Disney’s EPCOT theme park as a cultural representative, where she was able to apply her people skills. Her career has seen her work across worldwide sales, product and commercial for Travel2 before moving to Hays Tour Operations to manage the product development for the Middle East and Africa. Passionate about the touring sector and travel’s role in making the world a better place, Jen was attracted to G Adventures’ style of travel as well as its purpose-driven business model and leadership in the community tourism space.


“Having travelled with G Adventures in the past, I really respected the company’s approach to responsible travel, allowing travellers to see a destination in depth, interact with local communities while ensuring they leave the destination better than they found it. I’m delighted to step into a business whose values I respect and am excited to share these, along with the many incredible travel experiences on offer, with the travel agents in my region,” Watson said.


John McGrillen, CEO of Tourism Northern Ireland


“This tenacity and giant spirit throughout the tourism sector contributes to the positive outlook as we move towards economic recovery following the pandemic.” Throughout the campaign, all businesses operating within the visitor economy including accommodation providers, visitor attractions and more were encouraged to apply for the accreditation. In Northern Ireland, a total of 2,148 businesses took part and displayed the green logo on their premises and online.


By the end of summer 2021, NI holidaymakers felt


more confident to book further in advance than ROI visitors. This could partly be attributed to the success of the We’re Good To Go standards of which 50% of consumers were aware. Since Covid restrictions


nervousness around travelling lessened, VisitEngland, VisitScotland, Visit Wales and Tourism Northern Ireland have agreed that the initiative has achieved what it set out to and drew the scheme to a close. With nationwide restrictions behind us, Tourism NI acknowledges the support of the industry for taking the proactive step in helping visitors feel safe when travelling within, or to Northern Ireland.


The organisation is looking forward to welcoming both domestic and international visitors and guests in the coming season and seeing the tourism and hospitality industry restored to pre-pandemic levels. Whilst the ‘We’re Good To Go’ scheme has closed we


in Northern Ireland were officially lifted in February 2022 and consumer


would like to encourage businesses to stay connected with Tourism NI for other supporting activities. For more info, please visit: www.tourismni.com


“A Hammer Blow To Our Industry” – Advantage


Travel Partnership CEO JULIA Lo Bue-Said, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership, has released a statement on the one-year anniversary of the re-opening of international travel, commenting that “A full year on since the reopening of international travel, it’s now hard to believe that a global travel industry was shutdown, with travel curbs and restrictions imposed by governments that we now know were completely ineffective public health measures. “The restrictions that were imposed had a colossal


impact on consumer confidence and dealt a hammer blow to our industry. It is imperative that governments the world-over learn from the past to ensure the same mistakes are not ever made again. Even today these ineffective ‘public health’ measures continue to be valid in some nations.


“For me personally, the pandemic highlighted the


need for the outbound travel industry to grow its profile and lobbying capability with government. To continue working in unity as a sector, yet ensure that government has a very clear understanding of the economic and social benefit that outbound travel delivers as a business sector in its own right. We should never be in a position again where an entire eco system is shut down, leaving travellers unable to meet with friends and family, and what were once thriving businesses, left to pick up the pieces without any sector support.”


ABTA responds to Government’s New Aviation Strategy


Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA - The Travel Association said: “We welcome the publication of the Department for Transport’s new Aviation Strategy which sets out a framework for the recovery and future success of the UK’s world-leading travel industry. As we emerge from the crisis, there are many critical challenges ahead, including rebuilding consumer confidence, driving forward the sustainability agenda, and ensuring travel remains an attractive place to work. Constructive and regular engagement between industry and Government will be required to tackle these challenges successfully, and we particularly welcome the formation of the Aviation Council which will help to facilitate an ongoing dialogue. ABTA looks forward to engaging to ensure the views of the wider travel industry are heard and understood.”


ABTA have welcomed this news


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40