An
open letter from the chair and chief executive of ABTA to the UK’s Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, and secretary of state for transport, Grant
Shapps has said that travel agents that have spent decades building up
profitable and viable businesses are seeing their “life’s work wiped out,
leaving them with heart-breaking, but unavoidable, decisions to cut staff”.
The
letter, signed by ABTA’s chair Alistair Rowland and its chief executive Mark
Tanzer, calls on the Government again to provide tailored financial support to the
sector, add more countries to the green list and remove quarantine by the end of July for fully vaccinated travellers to amber list countries.
Many
travel businesses face a cliff edge later this week when their contributions to
furlough and business rates increase.
“Ongoing
restrictions on travel, combined with the pending rise in furlough and business
rates payments, mean that many travel businesses, particularly small to
medium-sized companies, are teetering on the edge of a financial cliff," the letter continues.
“This
devastation can still be avoided, if the Government takes urgent action to
support businesses through the crisis.
“The
gradual removal of support across the wider economy is based on parallel giving
back of freedoms, and lifting of restrictions, which will enable businesses to
trade again successfully. The Prime Minister, and many other Cabinet Ministers,
have publicly acknowledged that this process will not be followed for
international travel for many months to come.
“Yet
we hear nothing from the Government in terms of a plan for ongoing support,
only the repeated message that the aviation industry has received £7 billion in
support. This support, as you say yourselves, was given to the aviation
industry, not to travel agents.”