Eliana Willis

As many as 39,000 jobs have already been lost or placed at risk across the outbound travel sector since the Covid-19 crisis started, according to new research.
Surveying members, the Association of British Travel Agents found around 90,000 people could have impacted in total once supply chains are considered.
The situation has reached a “critical point,” the organisation added.
Mark Tanzer, ABTA chief executive, explained: “With the government’s stop start measures, the restart of travel has not gone as hoped for the industry, and sadly businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate.
“Coming towards the end of the traditional period for peak booking, we have hit a critical point as existing government measures to support businesses begin to taper off, the consequence of which, according to this survey of ABTA members will be ruinous for more people’s livelihoods.

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“Travel desperately needs the government in its next review to provide tailored support or tens of thousands more jobs will be lost.”
In response to potential job losses, ABTA has written to the chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to ask for tailored support in the form of a package of measures to support businesses.
The organisation found the job retention scheme has been a significant help for businesses in the travel industry, with nine in ten businesses taking part in the scheme to support staff.
However, 65 per cent of businesses have either had to make redundancies or have started a consultation process.
Despite this, there is optimism that the travel industry can recover, if offered the right support by government, with four in ten businesses confident travel can return to 2019 levels by 2022.
To do this, according to a plan put forward by ABTA, the government should adopt a regionalised approach to quarantine rules.
In the absence of a regional approach to Foreign & Commonwealth Office travel advice and quarantine rules the association argues it will be hard to reopen travel to critical trade partners, including the United States, in the foreseeable future.
At the same time, if the travel industry is to retain the maximum number of jobs, it is vital that consumers are incentivised to book holidays.
With the peak booking season starting from December, ABTA is therefore urging the government to use the Autumn Budget to announce an air passenger duty holiday covering Summer 2021.
If the government does not act with tailored support for travel, as it has for other sectors, 83 per cent of firms estimate that it will have a critical or serious impact on their business.
There are also calls to introduce a testing regime, echoing requests from officials at Heathrow.
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STA Travel has ceased operations in the UK, further illustrating the economic plight faced by many companies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company grew out of a student travel business and specialised in trips for young people, including gap years and volunteer projects.
Before the news was confirmed, STA Travel had more than 50 shops in the UK.
A brief statement on the STA Travel website read: “Please be assured that if you had a previous booking with us, or hold a live booking, you will receive further communication in the coming days.
“We are sorry for the inconvenience and the limited information available to you at this time.”
Around 500 jobs are likely to go following the closure.

pic.twitter.com/CzRK5NJ4SH
— STA Travel UK (@STATravel_UK) August 21, 2020
A statement from ABTA added: “The news that STA Travel, which was a long-standing ABTA Member, has ceased trading will send a shockwave through the industry, bringing to life the very real pressures that travel is under at the moment.
“STA Travel will be a name that is familiar to most people who will have used them to travel or been aware of their name on the high street, and this distressing news will sadly affect the livelihoods of hundreds of employees.”
ABTA added many customers would have used STA Travel to book package holidays as well as individual air tickets.

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The majority of holidays sold were flight inclusive packages, which are protected by ATOL, while scheduled airline ticket bookings should proceed as normal.
Non-flight-based packages will be protected, said ABTA.
“If customers booked a package holiday through STA Travel, and the holiday is provided by another tour operator, they will need to contact the tour operator who should be able to confirm that their booking will go ahead as normal,” said the spokesperson.
STA Travel, which originally stood for Student Travel Australia, but was later rebranded Student Travel Association, was founded in 1971, and specialises in long-haul, adventure and gap year travel.
The firm said: “Over recent months, the company took decisive measures to secure the business beyond Covid-19.
“However, sales have not picked up as anticipated, due to consumer uncertainties, further restrictions and renewed lock-down measures, which are expected to largely continue into 2021.”
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A new in-depth data dashboard highlighting the recovery of travel demand across flights and hotels has been launched by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
The technology also examines the shifting intentions of travellers through online travel searches.
The one-stop data shop or Interactive Covid-19 Travel Demand Recovery Dashboard was alongside McKinsey & Company.
This unique tool provides users with easy access to qualitative and quantitative travel data at the global and regional level as well as for 33 major countries around the world, by revealing travel demand since the beginning of the year and is updated on a fortnightly basis.
The dashboard offers a useful way to navigate through a vast array of data as travel demand around the world changes, in response to the gradual reopening of borders as travel restrictions are across the globe are eased.

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Free to all WTTC members and non-members, it presents two distinct views based on Google trends and searches, and bookings via research partners in the project.
ForwardKeys provide flights data, while STR shares hotel occupancy levels.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC chief executive, said: “We have created a unique dashboard featuring qualitative and quantitative data to provide the insights which could be crucial to help the tourism sector re-start and map out the path to its recovery.
“Our dashboard will enable decision makers to track the impact of public policies by monitoring the positive and negative fluctuations of flight and hotel bookings and also online travel searches, as well as consumer confidence.
“Data is essential for businesses, government and other organisations to make informed choices and drive the policy which will revive a sector that has suffered disproportionally due to the pandemic.”
More Information
Take a look at the dashboard here.
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Croatia, Ecuador and Ghana have become the latest destinations to be awarded a global safety stamp by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Ecuador received its WTTC Safe Travels stamp, following a major government announcement which will see international travellers arriving with a negative test taken within the previous ten days, exempt from its 14-day isolation.
This move will help reopen its tourism sector and provide a significant boost to the economy, authorities argue.
WTTC created the Safe Travels stamp in May this year to allow travellers to identify destinations and businesses around the world which have adopted the global standardised health and hygiene protocols.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC chief executive, said: “Our Safe Travels stamp continues to go from strength to strength and we are delighted to see even more popular countries and destinations from all corners of the world adopt our global health and hygiene protocols.

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Awkwardly for the WTTC, Croatia may be the next country removed from the quarantine-free safe list for UK travellers.
With 219 new cases in the 24 hours to Wednesday afternoon, the infection rate is four times higher than in the UK, prompting concern the country could follow Spain and France off the list.
Nikolina Brnjac, Croatia minister of tourism and sports, said: “Croatia is very proud to work with WTTC during these difficult times.
“As a popular European and Adriatic destination, we are doing our best to face all difficulties and to secure stability and safety for the local population and for all the travellers who have decided to visit us this year, despite the current circumstances.
“To make the new normal possible, we have gone to great lengths to prepare the necessary safety-protocols and measures.
Since the launch of the Safe Travels stamp, destination countries and cities around the world have now adopted new protocols, including holiday heavyweights such as Tunisia, Indonesia, Egypt and Dubai.
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Luxury small group tour specialist Cox & Kings has reported an increase in demand for solo travel.
On the back of a lockdown which saw borders close and airlines cancel flights, travellers are itching to get out and see the world – regardless if their friends and family would like to join.
In research conducted in the height of the pandemic, solo travel came in the top three of the types of trip consumers would like to go on, highlighting luxury travellers’ desire to explore the world post lockdown no matter what.
Reacting to the increase in demand Cox & Kings have released the first three solo places booked on select departures of their most popular trips with no single supplement to pay.
Kerry Golds, managing director of Cox & Kings, commented: “We’re getting the distinct impression from our enquiries that there is pent up demand out there, particularly from solo travellers.
“The British people have wanderlust in their DNA, so it’s no surprise that lockdown was a wakeup call for some people to dust off their bucket list and get something booked no matter if it is without their family and friends.

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“We have known for a long time that solo travellers don’t feel they’re well catered for by the travel industry – with high single supplements often quoted as an example of this.”
Golds added: “Now, with the introduction of our new no single supplement for the first three places booked, solo travellers are keen not to miss out – our recent launch to our database generated an 220 per cent uplift in enquiries for our 2021 programme from solo travellers and some tours have already sold out.”
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