Without the action taken by government so far, every part of outbound travel would have suffered significant failures.
Through the Save Future Travel coalition, we’ve aligned with different parts of our sector to ensure a consistent, coherent, evidence- backed voice is getting through to political decision-makers.
The Budget delivered on a lot of the things we, as an industry, asked for: extensions to furlough, the VAT and business rate holidays, and grant funding. These are hugely welcome.
But there are still gaps; travel has no tailored support. We need government to act on this by altering furlough to pay full salaries – we need employees working to plug the gap between customers booking and profits not materialising until client departures.
We need government to clear up the grant schemes where specific businesses, as well as self-employed and dividend directors, have fallen between the gaps.
We need government to ensure lenders are extending their terms for loan repayments.
It is right to keep making these demands.
It’s also worth remembering these demands are going directly into civil service work streams through the coalition and its contribution to the Global Travel Taskforce steering group.
Thanks to the vaccine, we can see a sustainable future for our industry.
Now, the success of the taskforce and whether the chancellor recognises our specific needs will ultimately decide how many individuals and businesses aren’t left behind.
It’s still within our control to influence both.
Gary Lewis is chief executive of The Travel Network Group.
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