During March and April ABTA commented on a range of topics in the media to promote the interest of ABTA Members and the wider industry.

At the start of March, ABTA’s consumer fraud awareness campaign was rolled out for the second year. The campaign achieved widespread broadcast, print and media coverage encouraging customers to look for the ABTA logo when booking as well as promoting a range of tips via www.abta.com/fraud which received direct promotion via the BBC.

The issue of school holiday pricing continued to achieve media interest, with ABTA taking part in an ITV Tonight Programme feature on this topic, along with commentators from the National Union of Teachers and TravelSupermarket.com. ABTAs spokesperson explained the economics of supply and demand and market forces, as well as using the platform to renew our call to consider the staggering of school holidays by region to relieve pressure on prices.

ABTA continued to highlight consumer travel trends, with its annual Easter Getaway release achieving good coverage in national papers’ travel sections and on-line. As new legislation was passed allowing same sex marriages in the UK, ABTA produced an inforgraphic on LGBT honeymoon destinations which was covered by a number of specialist and travel publications and was widely shared on social media.

ABTA also saw significant travel trade media coverage of its response to the Supreme Court decision on Medhotels and on the latest progress of Package Travel Directive (PTD) reforms, including first person comment pieces in these outlets. 

In total ABTA received 540 print, broadcast and online mentions during this period, and was featured in a range of broadcast media including ITV Tonight, Daybreak, Sky News x2, Loose Women on ITV x2, ITN, ITV news, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 news, BBC Breakfast x2, BBC Radio 4 You and Yours and a range of regional radio and TV outlets.