NEWS
Industry vows to keep up pressure
Ian Taylor
Industry leaders remain keen to maintain the pressure on the government to relax quarantine rules, warning of job losses and business failures if travel does not resume from July. Advantage Travel Partnership
Sign installed this week at Gatwick North Terminal
will be confirmed’ It’s my clear
understanding travel corridors will begin from June 29 and be announced before that
to take this forward. It’s no good announcing on June 29 that they are going to open the border the next day. Airlines won’t have schedules in place. At the moment, airlines can’t plan their fleets for July. It’s a big job to re-establish an operation. There is an awful amount to do.” The Foreign Office signalled a
relaxation is on the way by updating its travel advice on Sunday to say it “currently” advises against all but essential travel. The advice, in place since March 17, had been “indefinite”. A leisure industry source said “it’s a first step”, but warned: “Sometimes
travelweekly.co.uk
the Foreign Office moves at a different pace [to other departments] just to demonstrate its independence. The industry is concerned that airlines will have permission [to fly], but travel organisers will still be subject to advice that means they can’t go. If airlines say ‘We’re operating, it’s not our problem’ the costs could be significant even if a mismatch was for a very short time.” The source added: “Assurances
are being given, [but] we’re after more precision.” The latest BVA-BDRC consumer
research confirmed quarantine “has had a dramatic impact on consumer [travel] intentions”, adding: “Britons next expect to take an overseas holiday in nine months compared to six months’ time for UK holidays.” The survey, of 1,700-plus UK
adults in late May, found 4% aim to
take an overseas holiday by September. i Business, back page
11 JUNE 2020 Julia Lo Bue-Said 5
chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said warned: “Unless we get moving pretty quickly, we’re going to see mass redundancies and failures.” Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast,
Lo Bue-Said described member businesses as “hanging by a thread”. An Advantage survey of members found 15% fear for their future and 20% expect to make job cuts. Appearing on the BBC, Lo Bue-
Said denounced the quarantine as “illogical and too little, too late” and said: “If you’re booked for travel in July, I’m not sure what our industry can say to advise you.” Speaking on the same webcast,
Love to Travel owner and Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association president Joanne Dooey said: “Members are really worried. We’ve already seen a few companies go down. Customers want to travel but
they want information that it’s OK to travel.” Almost 400 of Travel Counsellors’
home-based agents have written to their MPs to lobby for change to the government’s quarantine measures and Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel. Abta chief executive Mark
Tanzer wrote to home secretary Priti Patel, insisting: “We must restart international travel.” He urged the government to “outline when this is likely to happen”. George Morgan-Grenville, chief
executive of tour operator Red Savannah whose Quash Quarantine campaign has assembled 500 travel business leaders behind it, said: “Quarantine threatens to wreck the remaining two months of summer. Take it down.” The campaign put planned legal
action on hold, but British Airways’ parent IAG, backed by easyJet and Ryanair, began proceedings on Friday, sending ministers a pre-action protocol letter – the first stage in seeking a judicial review – describing the quarantine as “disproportionate”,
“unfair” and “defective”. i Get Social, page 21
PICTURE: Shutterstock
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