Scotland’s travel industry marches on Holyrood to demand govt. support

A mass protest by Scotland’s travel industry professionals will take place outside the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood at midday today.

Organised by the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) an anticipated 150 travel agents, tour operators and travel associates are expected to take part.

Demonstrators will wear Save Scottish Travel face masks, brandish placards and hazard tape-bound passports, and wave flags of the world outside the Parliament building.

They will be demanding tailored financial support for the travel industry in Scotland along with a pre-departure rapid Covid-19 testing regime to be introduced at airports before Christmas.

SPAA says 26,000 travel sector jobs are at risk without a clear strategy and action plan for how the Scottish and UK governments will get travel moving again.

It estimates there are 5000 travel agency staff in 250 high street premises in Scotland and several hundred home workers.

SPAA members indicate that at least 500 jobs have been lost since March and that the rate of job losses will accelerate as the industry enters ‘a second year of zero revenue’.

Travel agencies are handling between 8% and 11% of the work volume of previous years – with the bulk of the current work being admin related to refunds and bookings, it said.

Passengers through Edinburgh airport between April and September fell by 91% on the previous year and in June, Glasgow Airport said traffic was down 98% on 2019.

SPAA says that well as the £1.7 billion of economic benefit to Scotland from outbound travel the country risks the £11billion of economic activity from inbound visitors.

Scotland’s travel industry is vital, not only for leisure and business travellers, but for exports, it said. "Without the connectivity of excellent direct flights, Scottish businesses will be unable to export goods.
Scotland’s chief statistician report on Scottish exports published in January 2020, notes that cash value of exports (excluding oil and gas) is £33.8 billion with food and beverages alone worth £420m," it added.

SPAA members also want a ‘comprehensive and robust testing system’ for internationally travellers, and an end to the current quarantine requirement for holidaymakers returning from high risk countries.
SPAA said the are confusing and have led to increased concern about travelling.

Pointing to research by the airline body IATA, SPAA said there have been only 44 identified potential cases of flight-related transmission among 1.2 billion travellers, which translates to one case for every 27 million passengers.

SPAA President Joanne Dooey said: "Travel is broken. We are at serious and immediate risk of losing Scotland’s travel industry and the 26,000 jobs which the industry supports.

"It seems as if the Scottish Government has completely turned its back on the travel industry which is massively short sighted. Scotland is a small country which needs its connectivity to the rest of the globe. We have already lost routes and more is imminent. If this happens it will be a catastrophe for the Scottish economy.

"Travel agents are broken – and broke. The financial model of the travel industry means that agents did all the work for summer 2020 bookings in autumn 2019 but they didn’t receive a penny of the money paid by their customer as this goes immediately and directly to the tour operator.

"Travel agents receive their fees eight weeks or so before departure date. No departures meant zero revenue. It’s clear that the financial model of the travel industry is neither understood nor differentiated by the Scottish Government from the domestic hospitality and tourism sector.

"As an industry, we have refunded our customers despite not always having received the refunds from the operators and airlines. We’ve lost all of our revenue for 2020 and we’re now facing the whole of 2021 with zero revenue. We urgently need a tailored support package of grants for the industry."

Joanne added: "Rapid airport Covid testing could save the Scottish travel industry. People want to travel but are put off by the ever-changing travel corridors and the possibility of having to quarantine for 14 days, even if on departure their destination was on the ‘safe list’. Or, that a holiday will be cancelled at short notice.

"Pre-departure Covid testing could be the lifeline for travel and this should lead to multi-lateral testing arrangements with other countries."