This last week has seen a myriad of travel stories across the national media – from flight cancellations to potential strikes, and perhaps most prominently, the heatwaves in southern Europe. We have been appearing in the media heavily on these issues – working to support our members by being a voice of reason and providing sensible advice for travellers.   

The heatwaves have particularly captured the media’s attention, with journalists looking for multiple angles to report on the story.  

It is really important the media are given an accurate picture of what these developments mean for UK holidaymakers heading to these destinations, and that your customers have sensible advice so they can have a fun and safe holiday.   

This has very much been the focus of our conversations with journalists and statements to the press over the last week.  

We’ve been stressing that people are travelling on their holidays as planned, with most people heading to coastal areas, and that the industry isn’t seeing evidence of cancellations. But it is important that people take sensible precautions to deal with the high temperatures.   

ABTA’s comments have been featured by dozens of national and regional outlets, including Sky News online, the Daily Mail and the Independent, as well as many more.  

On the subjects of strikes and cancellations, we’ve been the voice of clarity and reason. We’ve been careful to point out that it is not unusual for strike action to be threatened ahead of busy travel periods, but often they are cancelled and on the occasions they go ahead, contingency plans will be put in place to mitigate the impact as much as possible. 

Aside from responding to developments, we continue to proactively engage with the media on our agenda. Most recently sharing our six-top tips for travel ahead of the school holidays, reminding people to check their passports and make sure they have travel insurance, among other things and was featured in the BBC online and The Sun. This week we also supported the Foreign Office with its communications activity on travel insurance.  

All this work is important in helping show to holidaymakers that ABTA and our members are here to help them travel with confidence. 

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive