08 Oct
2020

Global Travel Taskforce a step forward, but urgent action needed

You will have seen yesterday that the Government launched a new Global Travel Taskforce to consider steps to enable the safe and sustainable recovery of international travel, including introducing a testing regime. 
 
In discussion with the Minister, I have made clear that testing is one important factor, but so is moving to regionalised quarantine and a return to travel advice for individual countries based on the risk to a traveller in destination. 
 
ABTA will of course engage with the Taskforce and will push for urgent and decisive action. You can read our full response here.
 
At the time of writing this, since its launch on Monday evening, over 11,000 people have signed our petition calling on Government to Save Future Travel. This has been a fantastic response in such a short space of time. Thank you to all of you who have signed and shared the petition so far.
 
There is still time to sign the petition and encourage others to do so. Even though we’ve exceeded the 10,000 signatures needed for the Government to respond, we are aiming for 100,000 which is needed to generate a debate in Parliament. You can sign the petition here.
 
The petition is part of the Save Future Travel Coalition’s lobbying for tailored support to help the travel industry survive the coronavirus crisis. The petition highlights that the Winter Economy Plan will not be enough to save travel, and asks the Government to support jobs and businesses through:

  • Fully regionalised quarantine policy
  • Introduction of testing
  • Review of the Job Support Scheme
  • Recovery grants for SMEs and travel businesses that missed out on previous support 
  • APD relief for summer 2021 to boost demand.

 We are still encouraging Members to contact your local MP to share your experiences of how COVID-19 has impacted jobs and businesses. We strongly believe that support from MPs will be fundamental in helping to securing the support we need. You can download a template letter here.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive