Advantage creates agent taskforce to feed into govt talks

Fifteen agents were invited to share their thoughts and suggestions, which will be fed back to the government’s Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) ahead of its highly anticipated 12 April report.

It comes after Advantage was invited to join the GTT’s working group on consumer confidence to represent the concerns and requirements of the UK’s travel agent community.

On Wednesday (24 March), Advantage sent a six-page submission to the GTT, focusing on the value agents provide consumers to ensure an end-to-end travel journey and highlighting the added value that comes from consulting a human travel professional at a time of such great uncertainty.

Advantage’s paper recommends tactics to help rebuild consumer confidence, such as by providing greater clarity on, and transparency around, what destination-specific advice is aligned with Foreign Office advice.

It also advocates a more risk-based approach to restrictions that takes vaccination roll-outs into account.

Other key factors identified by Advantage’s agent taskforce include better access to more reliable and affordable testing, greater international collaboration, a digital vaccination certification regime, more alignment between the UK’s devolved administrations, and improved co-operation with the travel insurance sector.