Travel Convention 2020: Abta chief Mark Tanzer defends the association’s handling Continued from page 40 “It’s more likely testing will


be at home, with the opportunity to reduce the quarantine period.” He conceded: “It’s not


ideal. Quarantine will still be a deterrent to travelling, still a barrier for short-term, short-haul travel where you go for a business or a weekend trip. But it will be better than 14-day quarantine. “Anything we can do to get


the timeframe down through testing is going to help, but I don’t think we’ll be in a quarantine-free environment by October.” He insisted Abta is “engaged


very closely on these issues” with the Foreign Office, Home Office and Department for Transport, saying: “There are joint workshops looking at testing and the logistics of that [and] we’re in constant dialogue with the Foreign Office to try to move them to a more-regional approach to quarantine. “This is a moving picture –


different countries come in and go out [of quarantine] – so we created a site for members to check exactly what the status is for any country.” Tanzer sees little prospect of


moving away from changes in the status of destinations at short notice. He said: “The problem is infection rates keep spiking very suddenly and the government wants to react to that. The 36-hour period [of notice] they seem to be working to at the moment is probably what we’re going to have to live with.”


‘Abta has been bold in its handling of the crisis’


Abta has focused on “producing results rather than making a noise” through the Covid crisis and did not “take a stand against quarantine” because it was “the wrong thing to do”. That is the view of Abta chief


executive Mark Tanzer, who told Travel Weekly: “We work with the Foreign Office very closely. We know health guidance comes first for the government and for customers and taking a stand against quarantine per se would be the wrong thing to do. “It would also be ineffectual, and


that is what we’ve seen. Getting the government to move away from a blanket to a targeted quarantine has been more productive.” He denied Abta had been


cautious in its approach to the crisis, insisting: “In some ways, we’ve been bold, taking a position on Refund Credit Notes when we were out on our own. It was the right thing to do for the industry and customers, but it was a bold thing to do. “It would have been easy to go


missing in action. We didn’t. We put ourselves at the front of that debate


and we took a lot of criticism for it.” Tanzer said: “The work we’ve


done on an operational level to support members and the public, initially with repatriation, then advice about destinations and now on recovery – all those are practical things. That is what Abta does. “We’re focused on what will


produce results rather than making a big noise. “We’ve been engaged with the


government in all sorts of ways. We’ve been engaged with the members and we’ve been talking to the public. No one could accuse Abta of going missing in action.” He added: “The government


Tanzer: ‘We work very closely with the Foreign Office’


Tanzer predicts need to prepare for no-deal Brexit


October 14, 2020 (09.00-17.00) Brought to you virtually


Members £125; non-members £249 thetravelconvention.com


38 3 SEPTEMBER 2020


Brexit will be back on the industry’s agenda this autumn as Britain’s exit from the EU nears at the end of the year and there appears little progress towards a trade deal. Abta chief Mark Tanzer warned:


“I’m increasingly of the view that we’ll have to start preparing for a no-deal Brexit. There may be


a miraculous breakthrough. But at the moment, with everybody absorbed by Covid, the talks are going very slowly.” The Travel Convention will hear


from Raoul Ruparel, Deloitte head of global Brexit insights and a former advisor to the prime minister, on the likely form of Britain’s exit. Tanzer said: “We’re focused on


particular issues that arise from Brexit – for example, the ability to move workers around. What kind of arrangements will be in place so tour reps or people working for the ski season can move?”


Brexit talks ‘are going very slowly’ He insisted: “If common sense


prevails, we should come up with structures that don’t impede the recovery and provide a good basis for travel to Europe in the future.”


travelweekly.co.uk


doesn’t always do what we want. That is something you learn as a trade association. [But] the pressure we put on the government early on, saying we need a furlough scheme – it wasn’t just the travel industry – helped make the government put its hand in its pocket to support jobs. “We’ll continue the dialogue and


the pressure.”


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