“I’m amazed and impressed by our members’ resilience,” he says, reflecting on another tumultuous year for travel. “Everyone’s had to carry on working through this with no money coming in, rebooking people, dealing with refunds, and keeping customer relationships going.
“This will be rewarded. People realise the value of travel professionals. They will gravitate towards those who can provide proper advice and protection.”
It’s mid-December when we fire up a Zoom; Omicron is here, Boris Johnson is prevaricating over potential new restrictions, and several destinations – most notably France – have shut their doors to Brits.
Plus ça change?
“It’s going to be a bumpy ride for another few months,” Tanzer concedes. “But we can only deal with what’s in front of us. The thing that gives me – and should give travel companies – the greatest confidence is that the desire and demand is still there.
“In fact, it may even be stronger than it was before the pandemic. If ever people were complacent about travel or took it for granted, that is no longer the case.”
TTG+: Watch TTG’s full turn-of-year interview with Mark Tanzer here
While Tanzer’s crystal ball aligns firmly with longer-term industry thinking, the work starts now. “We must get better at dealing with pandemics,” he says. “Travel restrictions are the easy political thing to do as a first step. But they’re not an effective prophylactic.
“We need to develop a better system of international cooperation on variants, vaccine efficacy, restrictions and certification before individual countries impose reactions. There’s a structure we need to build.”
Testing is one area Tanzer highlights for improvement; he says if testing is to remain, government must cap costs and police the market properly. “There is no doubt the process, and cost, is a disincentive at the moment.”
With government in the crosshairs, I press Tanzer for his reflections on the Global Travel Taskforce. “It did talk to industry,” he insists. “It wasn’t a full operational collaboration on getting travel moving, but we were in dialogue.
“Part of the taskforce’s objective was to get away from the stop-start travel corridors. Traffic lights didn’t really deliver that. It was ultra- conservative. We pushed for [travel] advice based on vaccination status rather than the country you happened to be coming back from.”
I’m keen to hear more about Abta’s lobbying efforts; it’s no secret travel hasn’t achieved the same cut-through in Westminster as some other sectors, such as hospitality. Indeed, shortly after we chat, the UK government pledged a further £1 billion support for that sector.
“The fact we haven’t won all we asked for isn’t necessarily because the voice hasn’t been heard,” reasons Tanzer. “People say travel doesn’t have a single voice – but I’ve seen the sector really work together [during Covid].”
‘Political orphan’
Many have called for a single organisation to unite travel, akin to UKHospitality. So will the Abta-led Save Future Travel coalition endure? “Collaboration where we have common interests is clearly desirable,” says Tanzer. “But the priorities of an international airline are not the same as an independent agent. We must recognise we’re not going to align on all issues.”
Outbound travel, he continues, remains “a political orphan”. “It’s seen as, if not exactly hostile to domestic travel, a second-order priority,” says Tanzer.
“More money is spent by people in the UK prior to going abroad than by visitors. The sector employs 520,000 people in its extended supply chain. I’d like a minister to have this as part of their portfolio. There’s recognition outbound travel hasn’t got an owner. It needs one in future.
“Whether government likes it or not, if people end up stranded overseas, it has to pitch in. So it is involved, but doesn’t currently bring any coherent structure to how it wants to be involved.
“Financial protection is another area. You have Atol, which the CAA runs. Its sponsoring department is transport, while the Department for Business looks after the Package Travel Regulations. So government is ‘in’ travel to a big degree, we just want more consistent interaction.”
One area Tanzer where does see scope for greater industry collaboration is on sustainability, particularly after Cop26 last year placed a spotlight on the climate crisis. “If we don’t make progress or tell people about it, there’s a risk of government stepping in and saying, ‘we’ll make progress for you’.”
This “progress”, Tanzer fears, will take the form of higher carbon taxes designed to discourage flying. Abta has partnered with Deloitte to measure travel’s progress on sustainability and define a roadmap, which recognises how different travel companies and sectors are moving at different speeds. “You’re not going to bring everyone together at the same starting point, let alone the same finishing point,” says Tanzer.
“We need to be really honest about where we are and measure our movement in the right direction.”
Carbon is just one focus, though. Tanzer hails travel’s larger operators for the “maturity” of their sustainability efforts, which he says now extend deep into their supply chains. Abta’s own Travelife programme, meanwhile, helps hotels audit and improve their sustainability credentials, going beyond energy, waste and water management to employee contracting and local food supply.
“The UN’s number one sustainability goal is reducing poverty,” says Tanzer. “About 10% of the world’s population is employed in tourism in one form or another. Our 2020 Tourism for Good report detailed a lot of the good tourism does while recognising the negatives and the duty to manage those.
“We need balance. Stopping people travelling isn’t the answer. If we achieved our sustainability goals by not flying anywhere, you certainly wouldn’t reduce poverty – you’d increase it.”
Abta ’open to change’
So what other challenges does Tanzer foresee? Financial protection and Atol reform are perhaps the most pressing. Abta recently warmed to trust arrangements, and while it is clearly an attractive option for both the CAA and government after the refund crisis, Tanzer believes complete segregation of customer cash could have “unintended consequences” such as stifling competition.
“The way the industry has operated has opened up travel to millions of people for whom it would have been unaffordable,” he says. “We need to proceed cautiously, and ensure there is a period of transition. If you flipped a switch and said, ‘no more use of customer monies’, you’d see a lot of failures.
“If we go to a system where the protection is great but there is less choice, you haven’t necessarily come to the optimum solution. We’re aware travel is constantly changing, as are the ways people do business. We’ve always been open to new models – we will embrace change and make sure we are where customers are in the future.”
Tanzer also highlights the refund credit note regime – “it’s in run-off but still needs management” – and Atol renewals. “We’ve had to get companies through a very difficult bonding cycle at a time when financial markets have taken a very jaundiced view of travel. I’m delighted we got most over the line. Some said it would be a bloodbath – it wasn’t.”
He also wants Abta to cement its reputation as a source of trusted information. “The flow of accurate, timely information from destinations to customers has been really important, and that will continue in 2022,” he vows. “I’m also proud of how we’ve engaged with members. We’ve had 4,000 people joining our bi-weekly conference calls.”
After 22 months, though, members are hurting. Tanzer believes their immediate asks of Abta are clear. “It’s about getting testing lifted as soon as possible,” he says. “And getting the Treasury to open its wallet.”
TTG+ members can watch the full interview with Tanzer on-demand here now.
