Leading agents are calling on Abta to take action beyond lobbying over the Package Travel Regulations to find “a better solution for the travel industry”.
Speaking during TTG’s latest Agent Matters panel, Simon Morgan, chief executive of Tailor Made Travel, which has 20 shops, said there were a whole host of other issues facing agents beyond the ongoing refunds debate.
He warned that once the furlough scheme comes to an end, agents could be forced to make “mass redundancies”.
“Abta’s missing a point on how our retail travel agencies are going to weather the post-corona storm, or more specifically the post-furlough situation,” said Morgan.
“Because when that scheme runs out, we’re either going to be announcing mass redundancies, or we need a solution. Holidays won’t be coming to fruition and paying commission until long after the end of June [the current end-date for the government’s coronavirus crisis furlough scheme].”
He added the grants available to firms, of £10,000 or £25,000 depending on rateable value, would “not last long”.
“We’ve still got to pay rent, rates, electricity bills, Abta bonding, card charges, bank fees,” said Morgan, who revealed the coronavirus crisis will cost Tailor Made Travel £1 million.
“We need to be lobbying Abta to be lobbying government to come up with a better solution for the industry.”
He highlighted the tourism minister has allocated budget to enable inbound tour operators to employ two members of staff on up to £2,500 a month, and an additional £5,000 for office running costs, so they can service pipeline bookings.
Scottish perspective
Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) president Joanne Dooey, owner of three-branch agency Love To Travel, highlighted a discrepancy between funding available to Scottish businesses and those in the rest of the UK.
Until recently, each business in Scotland (with a rateable value of £18,000-£50,000) was only getting a one-off grant of £25,000, dependent on rateable value, regardless of how many stores the business had.
“This caused a massive issue for a lot of our larger travel businesses up here,” said Dooey.
What’s more, the grant of £10,000 for businesses with a rateable value of up to £15,000 was only available to those in receipt of the Small Business Rates Relief scheme, which Dooey’s company, for example, was not signed up to.
Dooey explained: “There were many who had several shops or which had a rateable value of £15,000-£17,000 who weren’t getting anything at all, and I fell into that.”
“The SPAA really lobbied about that, and now in Scotland you get the grant for your first property, and 75% of it for the others.
“But it’s this inequality with the Scottish scheme compared with what everybody else gets – it’s not right.
“There is still the bit I fall into (due to not receiving business rates relief) and also, why are we not getting the full 100% for our other shops, like everyone else?
“It’s not been great for us up here – I’m still fighting and so is the SPAA. I’ve written three letters to [Scottish first minister] Nicola Sturgeon and I’ve written to every member of Scottish parliament, who in fairness are behind us here.
“That money won’t last long if this carries on for long.”
Dooey added, though: “I do think we’ll get it sorted, but some of us need it quite quickly,” she said.
Access to lending
The panel was asked what else they wanted to see from above, with flexibility to the furlough scheme a key point.
Tina Nason, managing director of Carrick Travel, which has 14 agencies, highlighted: “We have a lot of work for the teams to do… if we decided just to furlough everyone, who would help clients?”
Morgan said he wanted to see access to lending reassessed.
“The government’s lending schemes come with a bit of a sting in the tail, and that is that they require 20% security,” he said. “I’m now faced with giving £200,000 of personal security and I think the government should be changing those levels of security to perhaps 5%.”
Positive news
Other issues discussed by the panel included an uplift in enquiries.
“There are enquiries coming in, which surprised me at the beginning of the week,” Nason said. “The agents were excited at the prospect, which is great.”
Dooey said she had begun posting deals on Facebook and seeing enquiries off the back of them.
She said: “People are now getting used to being at home and are looking at what they are going to do once this is all over.
“Like Simon has done, I will probably look at whether I take some of the girls off furlough to hopefully look after the customers who I want to book for later this year and next year.”
Dooey said that most of the enquiries were for summer 2021, with some coming through for October this year and winter.
Morgan said the open letter Abta’s chief executive Mark Tanzer had sent to consumers spelling out the refunds situation had been posted on Tailor Made Travel’s Facebook page.
“It’s a useful act that goes some way to reassuring clients that we’re not telling porkies when we say ‘you can’t have your refund yet’,” he said.
“The first four to six weeks, clients have been patient and understanding, but patience is running a bit thinner now.
“We have to handle it as personally as we can and in some instances take the decision to refund ourselves where it’s a very important or longstanding client.”
In terms of which suppliers they had found the most supportive, Dooey praised Jet2holidays.
Nason added: “We will certainly know at the end of this who our better suppliers are, and those who have been more difficult to get hold of or get a decision out of unfortunately won’t be top of the list.”
Dooey concluded: “We’re a resilient lot and I do feel when we come back it will be with a lot of business, hopefully.”
Tune in to Agent Matters with TTG at 11am on Tuesdays on the Travel Trade Gazette Facebook page.
