30 Jun
2021

‘Short-sighted’ of Government not to exempt travel companies from rise in furlough and business rate costs

As businesses across the country face an increase in furlough and business rate costs from 1 July, ABTA – The Travel Association has accused the Government of being short-sighted by not exempting travel companies from these increases, given that travel businesses are barely able to trade or generate income.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA – The Travel Association said:
 
“It is short-sighted of the Government not to exempt travel businesses from the increase in furlough costs and business rates payments. The pressure to meet these payments will ultimately cost people their jobs and may force some businesses to close for good. Travel agents and tour operators have barely earned anything over the last 18 months – so there is no money in the bank to cover these costs. We urge Government to seriously rethink their approach and ask them to look at providing tailored grant support for these companies, recognising the recovery for the international travel industry will be much slower than the rest of the UK economy.” 

Figures from ABTA show that as many as 195K jobs in the travel industry have been lost or are at risk.

Earlier this week ABTA wrote an open letter to the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Transport, asking them to take urgent action to support the sector.

ABTA pens open letter to the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Transport urging them to support the outbound travel sector | News | ABTA