Sarah Wilson, CEO of Ace Travel Management, pictured at the Travel Day of Action
More companies in the business travel sector
have added their voices to today’s Travel Day of Action, with one calling the current traffic light system "overly cautious", a second saying the situation is "beyond desperate" and another dubbing the financial support for the sector as "insulting".
Sarah Wilson, sole owner and CEO of ACE Travel Management (pictured), said: “The lack of
international travel puts businesses under enormous pressure. We have no other
means of generating income. If people don’t travel then we don’t make any
money, it is a simple as that...The Government also needs to give some tailored
support to the travel sector. We haven’t had anywhere need the financial
support that other businesses have had, yet we have less opportunity to
generate income. The situation is beyond desperate. We need the Government to
urgently help us.”
Global Travel
Collection UK’s managing director Jason Oshiokpekhai, who is attending the
day of action, said: “With now over 75 per cent of our population having
received a vaccination and over 50 per cent having been double vaccinated, with
other countries on par or progressing at pace, it is inconceivable that we find
ourselves no further on than we were this time last year, in the peak of the
pandemic.
“The current travel taskforce model appears
illogical – we were assured a system based on science, yet we are placed a
situation where the scientific data and the traffic light placements do not
align.”
Jason Oshiokpekhai of Global Travel Collection UK and Maria Baty of Altour UK
Maria
Baty, managing director at Altour UK, said: “The corporate travel industry is
the lifeblood of the UK economy: virtually everything we need and love is
linked to the corporate travel sector in some way. From the Euros playing out
on our screens to the electricity powering the technology we watch the matches
on.
“If the UK Government cannot issue immediate plans for travel
recovery, then our sector needs an appropriate package of financial support to
compensate. Throughout the pandemic, the corporate travel sector has not even
been eligible to claim any form of grants which has added further financial
strain to beleaguered businesses.
“It simply is not enough by saying we have the furlough scheme
available – in fact, it’s insulting. It’s firstly insulting to the travel
businesses who have no income to pay bills or plan for recovery and, secondly,
it’s insulting to the hundreds of thousands of talented people employed by the
sector.”
Gatwick Airport chief executive, Stewart
Wingate, said: “Given the extra time the recent delay to the
lifting of lockdown allows, we urge the Government to use the time to put a
simple, effective and internationally coordinated system in place so that those
who have been double vaccinated can travel abroad without the need for
expensive tests.
“We also need more countries regularly added to
the green list if the airport and our supply chains and businesses are to
rebuild and protect as many jobs as possible. Gatwick has been a major driver
for the local and regional economy for several decades, as well as supporting
the wider UK economy during that time. The whole industry requires more
tailored financial backing from Government if we are to rebuild successfully
and ensure the UK remains a significant global player with outstanding
connections to major worldwide economies.”
Airport Operators Association chief executive,
Karen Dee, said: “The Government’s overly cautious approach to
reopening travel has real-world consequences for the 1.6m jobs in the UK
aviation and tourism industries that rely on aviation having a meaningful
restart.
“Unless the
Government makes a meaningful restart of aviation possible by extending the
green list at the next review, moving to rapid and affordable tests for
returning travellers and following the examples of the EU and the US by
reducing restrictions on fully vaccinated passengers, aviation and travel are
in for an extremely difficult summer.”
Labour MP Ben Bradshaw attended the event and tweeted, "Time to restart safe travel & scrap Johnson’s damaging & non-evidence-based travel restrictions".