ABTA launches high level campaign to ditch red tape

ABTA is urging travel agents and tour operators to join its new campaign to persuade the Government to ditch the red tape it claims is choking the industry.

The Association has formed a task force to be chaired by ABTA director and Barclays policy chief Christine Farnish to highlight "excessive and out-dated regulations" it believes should be ditched.

Farnish said: “The Government is serious about wanting to cut red tape and as an industry, we need to seize this opportunity to highlight which rules are unnecessary, add extra cost to our businesses for no gain or are simply out of date."

Spurred on by a recent visit by tourism minister John Penrose to ABTA’s head office, during which he invited the Association to participate in his efforts to remove unnecessary rules, guidelines and restrictions, it has already come up with a hit list of rules that should be chopped.

These include ending the rule for agents to put up ‘no smoking’ signs inside shops as the public are already aware that it’s forbidden to light up in public, and ditching the need for campsite and small B&B owners to keep passport details of all guests for a year – a rule which dates back to the Cold War.

Farnish added: " We will be submitting a report direct to the tourism minister. This is a process every agent and operator should participate in; if we get this right we could save the industry’s businesses millions in compliance and operating costs.”

ABTA’s head of public affairs Luke Pollard said excessive and out-dated regulations cost the industry millions of pounds a year. "In lobbying to get regulations like ATOL right, we must also keep one eye on rules that we should be getting rid of too," he said.

ABTA members are already getting involved. Midlands representative Sue Foxall said: “As an agent, I welcome this initiative that will enable me to spend less time wading through Government red tape, and more time doing what, as agents, we do best – providing safe, secure, and memorable holidays for the holidaying public.

"As an industry, we must speak up, and call for smarter, simpler regulations where we can. The Red Tape Challenge is a perfect opportunity to do that.”

ABTA is inviting contributions from the industry on what rules and regulations need scrapping or updating, including employment law, obligations on owning a business, taxation requirements and the rules and regulations that govern travel.

Ideas should be emailed to [email protected]

Which rules would you like to see ditched? Have your say by clicking on the Comment box below.

By Linsey McNeill