Thousands back Save Future Travel campaign in first 24 hours

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Abta's Save Future Travel campaign generated 13,500 responses in its first 24 hours

The association’s call for grassroots political action by travel and tourism businesses, their staff, and supporters of the sector, saw 13,500 emails sent to ministers, including 4,000 from supporters, which Abta said demonstrated the "breadth and depth of concern" and the level of frustration within travel at the lack of government action so far.

Those wishing to assist the campaign, which is formally backed by more than 20 travel companies including agents, operators and cruise lines, can visit savefuturetravel.co.uk to petition their local MP, with emails so far having reached 647 of the UK’s 650.

Abta is asking the government to amend the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) to allow "normally viable and healthy businesses" to issue credit notes rather than cash refunds while protecting the customer’s right to receive that refund.

Under the PTRs, the UK’s interpretation of the EU Package Travel Directive (PTD), refunds should be paid to consumers within 14 days if part of a travel package cannot be provided.

The sector is arguing that while these rules work when it is just one destination or travel provider that is affected by a change in Foreign Office advice or an insolvency, the regulations were not designed when the whole travel industry is forced to shut down to a major global event, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Commission last month amended its guidance on the PTD, stating customers should be encouraged to accept credit notes so long as they can ask for a full refund at a later date, and that any credit notes should be covered by insolvency protection.

This has allowed several European countries, including France, Germany and Spain, to make temporary changes to their own regulations, but the UK is yet to follow their example. It is understood Abta and the CAA, which operates the Atol scheme, are broadly aligned on any such objective, but the matter now rests with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

’Phenomenal response’

Abta has produced a template letter, which can be used by anyone and sets out how the association proposes to safeguards thousands of travel sector jobs. It is also promoting the #SaveFutureTravel hashtag across several social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

“We’ve seen a phenomenal response to our call to action among the industry, thank you to everyone who has got involved so far," said Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer. "The lack of government action and guidance to date on refunds defies logic and has left consumers in no-man’s land, and the situation is worsening.

"We need to keep up the momentum at a crucial time. We need everyone not only to get behind the campaign, but to encourage friends and family to support it too. MPs will listen to their constituents, but they need to hear your voice. If you haven’t done so already, people email your MP via www.savefuturetravel.co.uk and ask others to do the same.”