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Almost four in 10 consider quitting the travel industry
More than a third (36%) of people working in travel are actively considering leaving the industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 57% of respondents to a WorkAdvisor survey carried out last month said their mental health has been affected by the crisis, 11% said it had had a ‘significant’ impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
Causes included stress and anxiety relating to uncertainty about the future, the negative impact of Zoom or Slack causing intrusion and work distractions, being overworked as a result of the crisis and putting in extra hours.
"It would seem that the pressures of dealing with customers and refunds has piled on the stress for staff in the travel industry during the crisis and that having to work remotely has not helped workers handle the amount of work," said a spokesman for WorkAdvisor.
The survey also found that more than three-quarters of workers are concerned about returning to an office environment and 68% believe they will be working from home in the future. Some 11% said they were ‘very concerned’ about returning to the office and 4% said they would refuse.
Concerns surround using public transport, not managing to maintain social distancing in the office, and fears of a second wave of Covid-19.
More than half – 54% – of respondents have been furloughed, which is more than double the national average of 25%, but 9% have been asked to work whilst furloughed, which is against the rules of the Job Retention Scheme.
Some 11% of respondents believe UK travellers won’t take any foreign holidays for the next 12 months and, as a result, 4% believe the industry will never recover, only 36% believe the industry will fully recover while 54% think it will only make a partial recovery.
While there is widespread optimism that things will ‘pretty much get back to normal at some point’, 12% believe their employer will never recover and a further 48% think their employer will make only a partial recovery.
The survey, The Impact of the Coronvirus Crisis On People Working in the UK Travel Industry, found that 7% of respondents had already been made redundant.
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Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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