Industry gathers for Travel Day of Action

From the biggest names in travel to independent family-run travel agency owners, the industry is coming together like never before and gearing up for the ‘Day of Action’ today.

As well as travel executives and travel agents, airline pilots, aviation workers and cabin crew will be out in force for a nationwide protest calling on the government to safely reopen quarantine-free travel for those vaccinated and provide tailored financial aid to hard-pressed businesses.

Several thousand industry workers are expected.

ABTA estimates up to 195,000 jobs have been lost or are still at risk in the travel industry.

One key activity is the Twitterstorm, with ABTA urging people to post the following tweet from 2pm:

Let’s build on the great progress of the vaccination rollout and safely open up travel this summer @borisjohnson. Jobs and livelihoods depend on it. People are desperate to see friends/family overseas, make business connections & have a break #speakupfortravel #traveldayofaction

Several airports around the country are getting involved.

"Aviation has been the sector hardest hit by the pandemic, yet government does not seem to appreciate its economic value or trust its own system for the restart of international travel," said Charlie Cornish, Manchester Airports Group CEO.

"Despite holding back the recovery of an industry that supports more than 1m jobs, and generates billions of pounds of value, there has been nowhere near the level of support offered to other parts of the economy.

Resort operator Club Med is also speaking up for travel.

Estelle Giraudeau, Managing Director, UK & Northern Europe at Club Med said: "As a business, we are calling on the government to be more transparent and consistent with their traffic light system and stand as one with the travel industry who all feel they have been let down by the government."

Brittany Ferries says it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with ABTA, airlines and others in the travel sector in supporting the Day of Action.

The peak summer holiday season is around the corner but there is still no transparency in the government’s traffic light system for international travel, it says.

This has led to ‘uncertainty among travel companies and their customers, which has hit summer bookings hard.’

It is not only leisure travel businesses coming together to make their voices heard.

Jason Geall, SVP and regional GM, EMEA, American Express Global Business Travel said: "GBT is calling on the UK Government to be consistent with emerging global protocol by expanding the green list to include fully vaccinated travellers coming from amber countries."

"Every day the Government fails to act, we risk falling even further behind the EU, which is beginning to safely resume travel with its key trading partners."

The day also includes lobbying MPs and industry workers are encouraged to do so at the respective parliaments in Westminster, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh.