25 Jun
2020

Good news is anticipated but there is more work to be done

As expected, the Government confirmed this week that domestic tourism could restart, and now all eyes are on what will be said about travel corridors and the restrictions that will change to facilitate these and get people moving again. In a week’s time we hope, at last, to be in a very different place with routes to certain destinations opened up, and business will start to feel more normal for all ABTA Members.

There appears to be much anticipation amongst customers to travel given the response over the last week to lockdown easing for domestic tourism and the hope is that this carries through to package holidays for the summer. Confidence has always been important to our industry and never more so than now. There will be some people that can’t wait to get away but others that will need reassuring that they can travel safely.

ABTA has been busy preparing for this moment and today we are launching a ‘Post Pandemic Recovery’ guide to support destinations and the travel industry on the road to recovery. The guide, which is designed to help with changes to operations in this period of transition, is available for free to all ABTA Members, more can be read about it in ABTA Today.  
 
However, there is still a long way to go, and ABTA will continue our daily engagement with Government to encourage them to take action that will safely relax restrictions further and respond to the economic hardship the industry still faces. Changes to the furlough scheme are likely to have huge consequences and the industry will require ongoing and tailored support to avoid redundancies and, potentially, insolvencies. 

There is much more work to be done as we start the process of rebuilding, but after months of turmoil it will be refreshing to have some good news.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive