26 Aug
2021

ABTA responds to Government’s latest traffic light update

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“The latest travel update provides some stability to international travel as well as reassurance for holidaymakers heading off to popular holiday destinations over the coming weeks. 
 
“The Government now needs to focus its attention on sorting out some of the structural issues that are stopping people travelling and delaying the industry’s recovery. The UK may be leading the way on the vaccine rollout but it is lagging behind other countries when it comes to opening up international travel and making it easy for people to travel. The Government can and should do more to capitalise on the successful vaccine roll out in the UK - our neighbours across the channel have been able to travel without restriction for quite some time if they have been double vaccinated. The expensive testing regime is putting people off taking a holiday overseas and is unnecessarily onerous when people are returning from low-risk countries.
 
“We also need the Government to recognise the impact the pandemic has had on travel businesses and support them in the industry’s recovery. Travel agents, tour operators and travel management companies haven’t had access to the same level support as other industries yet their opportunity to trade their way out of the crisis remains severely restricted by the Government. The end of furlough is a real worry for many companies and the Government needs to provide financial support for the sector.”
 

 

Notes to editors

ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 70 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence.

The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members. 
 
We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.
 
ABTA has more than 4,300 travel brands in Membership, providing a wide range of leisure and business travel services, with a combined annual UK turnover of £39 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.