Last week started out for Britons in the overseas tour and travel industry with the UK’s largest and oldest travel trade organization, ABTA, reporting that 39,000 jobs have been lost or are at risk across the UK outbound travel sector since the Covid-19 crisis started, with the number rising to a staggering 90,000 when supply chains are taken into account.
The source for the above is the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, whose statistics show that, for every job in outbound travel, there are 1.39 jobs in the wider related industries. This equates to a total number of affected jobs of 93,210.
Small wonder, then, that ABTA said that the UK travel industry jobs situation is now critical and, if a second wave forced a further shutdown, 96 percent of travel businesses report it would have a critical or serious impact on their ability to survive.
Meanwhile Research among ABTA members also revealed:
—8 percent of jobs in outbound travel have been lost or placed at risk and the situation is set to worsen.
with over 78 percent of businesses yet to enter redundancy conversations expecting to do so in coming
months, based on current trading conditions.
—Nine in 10 businesses have used the furlough scheme, but 65 percent have now either made redundancies (layoffs) or have started a consultation process.
Despite this, wrote Lisa James, deputy editor of the trade publication, TravelMole, “there is optimism that the travel industry can recover, if offered the right support by government, with four in ten businesses confident travel can return to 2019 levels by 2022.”
ABTA has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, under its “Save Future Travel” initiative, to demand tailored help for the outbound industry. The organization wants to government to adopt a regionalized approach to quarantine rules otherwise it is ‘difficult to see how the UK can reopen travel to critical trade partners, including the United States, in the foreseeable future.
The organization also wants a “holiday” for the Air Passenger Duty (or APD, a per-person levy on passengers departing from the UK and based on how far the aircraft carrying passengers will fly to its destination) covering summer 2021 to incentivize bookings from December.
If the Government does not act with tailored support for travel, as it has for other sectors, ABTA said, 83 percent of firms estimate that it will have a critical or serious impact on their business.
ABTA is also asking for a testing regime to enable travel to resume to major global trading partners and mitigate the risk of infection from high-risk countries; more recovery grants and other business support as well as ongoing salary support until March 2021.
ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer noted: “With the government’s stop-start measures, the restart of travel has not gone as hoped for the industry, and sadly businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate.”
And in a sample of the dire language common to news media coverage taking place in the worst economic contraction of the UK economy since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, Tanzer added, “Coming towards the end of the traditional period for peak booking, we have hit a critical point as existing government measures to support businesses begin to taper off, the consequence of which, according to this survey of ABTA members will be ruinous for more people’s livelihoods.”
“There is optimism that the travel industry can recover, if offered the right support by government.”
Despite this, wrote Lisa James, deputy editor of the trade publication, TravelMole, “there is optimism that the travel industry can recover, if offered the right support by government, with four in ten businesses confident travel can return to 2019 levels by 2022.”
ABTA has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, under its “Save Future Travel” initiative, to demand tailored help for the outbound industry. The organization wants to government to adopt a regionalized approach to quarantine rules otherwise it is ‘difficult to see how the UK can reopen travel to critical trade partners, including the United States, in the foreseeable future.
The organization also wants a “holiday” for the Air Passenger Duty (or APD, a per-person levy on passengers departing from the UK and based on how far the aircraft carrying passengers will fly to its destination) covering summer 2021 to incentivize bookings from December.
If the Government does not act with tailored support for travel, as it has for other sectors, ABTA said, 83 percent of firms estimate that it will have a critical or serious impact on their business.
ABTA is also asking for a testing regime to enable travel to resume to major global trading partners and mitigate the risk of infection from high-risk countries; more recovery grants and other business support as well as ongoing salary support until March 2021.
ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer noted: “With the government’s stop-start measures, the restart of travel has not gone as hoped for the industry, and sadly businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate.”
And in a sample of the dire language common to news media coverage taking place in the worst economic contraction of the UK economy since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, Tanzer added, “Coming towards the end of the traditional period for peak booking, we have hit a critical point as existing government measures to support businesses begin to taper off, the consequence of which, according to this survey of ABTA members will be ruinous for more people’s livelihoods.”
