Industry urged to contact MPs again ahead of parliamentary debate on 10 June

Thursday, May 27, 2021

With another parliamentary debate planned for 10 June, ABTA is continuing its engagement with MPs and has provided updated materials that travel agents and tour operators can use in their own outreach with their local MP.

Henry Smith, who is the MP for Crawley and Chair of the Future of Aviation Group, will lead the debate which looks at support for the aviation, travel and tourism industries.

The new materials including a template email for MPs, a briefing note and an infographic on the lifecycle of travel bookings.

Separately, Mark Tanzer will be speaking at the Treasury Select Committee on Monday 7 June as part of an evidence session exploring financial support offered to different sectors of the economy in response to the COVID pandemic. This will be an opportunity for ABTA to reiterate calls for a tailored approach to financial support for the travel sector, which recognises the slower path to recovery facing travel companies and constraints that the industry will be under for many months to come.

Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“Its really important that we encourage as many MPs as possible to attend the debate in June and speak up for the industry.

“As we saw from this week’s debate, there is strong support for the sector among parliamentarians, and we need to keep up this momentum to demonstrate to Government that they must act to save the travel industry. MPs will play a really important role in helping to make our case about the value of the sector to Government, and in persuading them of the need to provide tailored assistance.

“Even if you were in touch with your MP last week, please do get in touch again. We need MPs to treat our priorities as ongoing concerns and hearing directly from their constituents is crucial part of ensuring they understand the difficulties facing the sector, and the measures that can be taken to save businesses and jobs in the industry.

“We will be doing all we can to make sure as many MPs as possible are aware of the issues facing sector and our main asks for Government support – extending employment support and business rates relief and making available recovery grants for travel businesses.

“We will also make clear the need for Ministers to focus on facilitating the recovery of international travel ahead of the upcoming reviews into the traffic-light system, by opening up more countries to the green-list, where health data allows, and by relaxing restrictions for travel between low-risk countries and for fully vaccinated individuals.”

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