The Future Travel Coalition is asking travel businesses to reply to its latest survey on bookings and business matters.

This is part of the group’s regular surveying to gather evidence which is used anonymously to support the coalition’s lobbying activities – both with the Government and opposition parties.

The survey looks at a range of issues including recruitment, bookings compared to 2019 and borrowing/access to finance.

Businesses who are part of members of the coalition bodies are invited to take part, with the deadline for responses Friday 8 December. The survey can be found here.

The Coalition says the Government and opposition will be thinking about how they want to position themselves to voters ahead of the next General Election, so it is important MPs, prospective MPs and officials have evidence on the value of the UK travel industry.

Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“Last week the Chancellor delivered an Autumn Statement pitched as a plan for growing the economy. As a sector with huge growth potential – predicted to outpace the wider economy – it’s important we continue to work with politicians from all parties, and officials, to demonstrate the value our amazing industry brings not just to consumers, but jobs and economies locally and nationally.

“Travel is recovering from the pandemic and proving resilient, and it looks promising for the year ahead. But we know that many businesses, while trading well, have the debt built up during the pandemic to deal with now, and it’s a point we keep reminding politicians of.

“To be effective and influential we need the evidence from travel businesses on how things are going. It really makes a difference to the conversations with politicians, and is so crucial now, as parties are thinking about the case they want to make to the public ahead of the next general election. I can’t stress enough just how valuable the input of travel agents’ and tour operators is into the survey.”

Notes to editors

About the Future Travel Coalition
The Future Travel Coalition is a cross-industry group of associations, trade bodies and consortiums which represent a large proportion of the UK organised travel market, including leisure and business travel, inbound and outbound operations. The group is working together on shared lobbying priorities to amplify and align the industry’s voice where there are common goals.

You can read more about the Future Travel Coalition here.

About ABTA
ABTA is a trade association for UK travel agents, tour operators and the wider travel industry. We’re the largest travel trade body, with over 4,600 travel brands in membership who have a combined pre-pandemic annual UK turnover of £40 billion. We work closely with our members to help raise and maintain standards and build a more sustainable travel industry, and provide travellers with advice, guidance and support.

Our members sign up to a code of conduct and commit to agreed service standards and fair trading. When you need clear travel information, and accurate and impartial advice relating to your trip, we’re here for you. When you book with an ABTA member, reliable advice comes as standard. This means that booking with our members brings peace of mind.

All this together means we help you travel with confidence. www.abta.com