Our lobbying activity can have much more impact when we have evidence from you, our members, on particular issues. Your input adds significant weight to the arguments we make to government and politicians and helps justify why we propose particular solutions on your behalf. 

This is why we run regular surveys, as part of our work with the Future Travel Coalition, to gain your insight. The latest of these launched today and we’re encouraging as many members as possible to respond.

We use the findings in our meetings with Ministers and MPs, as well as our engagement with officials and when developing our policy proposals. Through the latest survey we are looking to establish how bookings are faring, understand any recruitment challenges and assess the management of loans taken out during the pandemic.

The survey is anonymous, with the deadline for responses 10 May. You can complete the survey here. It should only take 10 minutes to complete.

Another way you can support ABTA’s lobbying activity is to write to your local MP and parliamentary candidates, sharing ABTA’s Manifesto for Travel and Tourism, which was launched last week. It outlines the issues we want the next government to act upon and the value of the outbound travel industry to the local and national economies.

One of the main themes of the manifesto is positioning the UK as a sustainable travel leader. This was a topic discussed at ABTA’s Aviation Forum earlier this week, amongst other topics, where delegates heard an update on aviation’s decarbonisation plan, and the technologies being developed and tested to reach jet zero, including Sustainable Aviation Fuel, hydrogen flight and electric aeroplanes.

Today the Government has announced its plans for a SAF mandate, and as part of this it highlighted the need to make sure the decarbonisation of aviation doesn’t come at the expense of the consumer. This is really encouraging to see; it is a point we have been raising with Government and is an ask in our manifesto. You can read our statement on this here.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive