With restrictions causing overseas travel figures from the UK to drop from 93 million in 2019 to just 23.8 million in 2020, the UK travel industry is joining forces to ask for dedicated support and policy change to ensure the industry can bounce back in 2021 and beyond.

Essex-based Once in a Lifetime Holidays, is joining a coordinated day of action on Wednesday 23 June 2021 to lobby the Government to support the wider travel industry. The event will highlight the continuing challenges the industry faces due to the Government’s approach to reopening international travel.

The organised lobbies will be held at Westminster in London, Holyrood in Edinburgh and Stormont in Belfast, and are being coordinated through the Save Future Travel Coalition. Members of Parliament have also been invited to join the Travel Day of Action to discuss a safe, risk-managed way to implement the Global Travel Taskforce’s plan for a traffic-light system. This would see the green list expanding in line with the evidence and making restrictions more proportionate, whilst keeping a strong red list to guard against emerging COVID-19 variants.

Implementation of the Global Travel Taskforce’s plan would allow the wider industry to resume: much needed after 14 months of restrictions. The vaccination programme was expected to restart the travel industry, but many businesses are in a worse position than last summer, believing themselves unable to close but unable to trade. Consumer confidence is also reported to be at an all-time low after the removal of Portugal from the green list, despite Government assurances a watch list was in place to avoid such disruptions.

Joan Jones, Owner at Once in a Lifetime Holidays, says:

“We urge anyone from the travel and tourism industry, and consumers who feel strongly about their freedom to travel to safe destinations, to get behind the Travel Day of Action, whether that be writing to your MP or sharing our message on social media. It can be as simple as using the hashtags #savetravel and #traveldayofaction, or you can write to your MP.

“We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our customers throughout the pandemic – dealing with a large number of amendments, cancellations and refunds – but with a dramatic drop in income. The Travel Day of Action urges the UK Government to provide clarity and fixed timescales in order to rebuild consumer confidence and our industry.

“The complexities of travelling and cancellations during the pandemic has proven the value of a professional travel agent, and we want to continue supporting UK travellers, but we need the full support of the Government to enable us to do so.”

Despite the limitations, consumers are reminded that there are still holidays available to book both overseas and in the UK this summer. Further travel updates are also expected by the end of June. For full details, contact your travel consultant.