The additional measures you need to take when travelling overseas right now – vaccination certificates, tests, passenger locator forms etc – mean customers are desperate for information to help them plan and travel. 
 
The need for clarity and information comes through strongly when you look at the most popular pages on ABTA’s website. Our blogs on testing for travel and for travel to an amber list country were the two most viewed pages on the ABTA website last week. Most people came across these blogs via Google searches, with numbers increasing over the last few weeks. Not only does this tell us that people want and need information about travel it also shows that they are actively planning overseas trips. 
 
The desire to travel abroad is also reflected in ABTA’s consumer sentiment tracker which found that 41% have a holiday abroad booked for the next 12 months, and a separate survey carried out over the weekend found 35% had booked a foreign holiday for this summer. These numbers aren’t at the level we would normally see at this time of year, it shows that demand for travel remains, in spite of a difficult climate.
 
Through our #ReadySteadyTravel campaign we’re working to help people turn their hope for a foreign trip into reality by providing them with the information they need to be reassured and confident to travel. I know that Members are also spending a lot of time guiding customers through the travel process to make sure that they can get away, easily and safely, on their long-awaited trip, and we have lots of resources available in the Member Zone to help Members support customers.
 
We’re also working hard to help people feel excited about the prospect of heading overseas by sharing inspirational images and content across our channels. We’re keen to involve ABTA Members in the next phase of our #ReadySteadyTravel campaign by getting you to share some top tips about popular holiday destinations – the type of information that travel professionals know, but very few other people do. More information on how you can get involved is available in this week's ABTA Today.

Our work to support consumer confidence continues alongside our lobbying activities, including on the matter of testing. We continue to highlight that the cost of testing is a barrier to travel for some people and question the current approach to testing for those returning from lower risk countries. ABTA was featured on ITV News last night and in the national media earlier in the week on these topics and we’re pleased to see Huw Merriman, the Chair of the Transport Select Committee, and Henry Smith, Chair of the Future of Aviation Group, raise these issues with Government this week.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive