05 Jul
2021

Speak Up for Travel coalition writes open letter to Secretary of State to support the safe return to international travel

ABTA – The Travel Association and the leaders of the Speak Up for Travel coalition have written an open letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, to call on him to support a risk-managed approach to the safe return to international travel in time for the peak summer period. The letter highlights the value of tourism to the UK economy and the risks of lack of action. 

 

Dear Secretary of State, 

The urgent need for a risk-based return of international travel

As leaders of the Speak Up for Travel coalition, we are writing to congratulate you on your appointment as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and to call on you to support a risk-managed approach to the safe return to international travel in time for the peak summer period.

This summer season is the most important ever for the UK travel industry. A safe and meaningful restart to international travel is possible, but it is vital that decisions are taken quickly.

As you may know, the Speak Up for Travel campaign is a travel industry coalition representing all parts of the UK’s travel and tourism industries, with members including ABTA, Airlines UK, the Airport Operators Association, BAR UK, UKinbound, the Business Travel Association, IATA, Advantage Travel Partnership, The Travel Network Group and the wider industry under the umbrella Save Future Travel Coalition, alongside unions GMB, Unite, BALPA and Prospect.

Before the pandemic hit, our industry and those who worked in it were a cornerstone of the UK economy. As the third most internationally connected country in the world, we enabled tens of millions of UK residents to travel overseas, whether on business, for holidays, or to see families and friends, generating over £53bn in domestic spending, and also catered for the 41 million tourists, travellers and business people arriving on our shores, spending £28.4bn in our world-class cities and attractions.

The pandemic has been a catastrophe for our industry and the wider economy. Pre-pandemic, international travel directly sustained more than 1.5 million jobs in the UK economy, across aviation and tourism. However, hundreds of thousands of jobs have now been lost, and many more remain at risk. On the 23rd June, our coalition came together during a Travel Day of Action with events in Westminster and across the country to call for the safe return to international travel, through the proper implementation of the Global Travel Taskforce’s plan for a traffic-light system, by expanding the Green list in line with the scientific evidence and making restrictions more proportionate, whilst keeping a strong red list to guard against variants.

We also reiterated our calls for a package of tailored financial support, including extension of furlough support, that recognises that the travel sector’s ability to trade and generate income is much slower than anticipated and when compared to other parts of the domestic economy, able to reopen.

We implore you and your Cabinet colleagues to act decisively to save jobs and businesses, and to set the industry on the road to recovery in a risk-based manner. For example, today we are seeing other countries, many with lower rates of vaccination than the UK, begin to reopen their borders and enable their citizens to travel again particularly through recognition of vaccination status. We are encouraged that the Government has confirmed an intention to relax rules for fully vaccinated people travelling from amber destinations, and to remove statements discouraging travelling to these places. However, these changes must be implemented quickly – at the latest alongside the lifting of domestic restrictions in July – if they are to make a meaningful difference to the UK travel industry.

We also urge the Government to ramp up its engagement with counterparts across Europe and the USA, to allow travel flows to recover. We are encouraged by reports the Government is considering the mutual recognition of vaccination certification with the EU, which would build on the success of the rollout of the NHS app, and should also include the ability to prove a negative test result.

We look forward to your response on these important matters, and would welcome the opportunity brief you on why we strongly believe a safe return to international travel is possible, and what is needed to make this happen. 

Yours sincerely

signatures to letter

 

Cc – Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Transport