An anger directed, of course, at Her Majesty’s Government, which has – for some 18 months – abandoned and misled the UK travel business.

Aito chair Chris Rowles,put it succinctly at a recent Aito meeting when he bluntly commented that, above all, he hated being lied to by the government: lied to about wanting to open international travel; lied to about their actions being determined by the science rather than politics; and lied to about "following the data".

Or this, from an Aito member: "The government’s actions have been a muddle of complex, nonsensical, panic-driven and ill-considered measures, all off-putting to hopeful would-be travellers."

The travel industry’s trust in the government has broken down so severely that there is even a conspiracy theory doing the rounds that Westminster wants the outbound travel industry to fail to benefit the domestic sector, and that ministers regard the travel trade as expendable.

That may or may not be true, but that such a theory exists is an indication of the gulf that needs to be bridged. It certainly seems the government has been guided not by principles but by the polls, rendering the travel trade collateral damage.

In the view of many, the actions of the government can be put down to dishonesty, incompetence or ignorance of how the travel trade works and what the sectors within the industry are.

For example, when complaints were made that the travel sector was getting insufficient support, we were reminded airlines were being helped to the tune of £7 billion, with seemingly no recognition of the needs of tour operators or travel agents. Travel is not just airlines, minister.

Many EU countries have been much more generous with financial assistance. By contrast, we have been given CBIL loans we now have to pay back despite taking little to no income over the past 18 months. Pretty challenging.

Much of the public now has a distrust of both the travel industry after the refund debacle in 2020, caused by the not-fit-for-purpose-in-a-pandemic Package Travel Regulations, and of the government after so many short-notice twists and turns regarding travel abroad.

Given this distrust, it is no surprise that only between 10-14%, depending on which poll you read, intend to travel this year – with most people saying the rules are so complex, and PCR tests so pricey, that they can’t be bothered any more.

‘Left to sink’

I can speak best for the specialist sector, the operators that make up Aito’s membership. With no help from the government, many specialist operators are being left to sink.

Many of them have not been able to furlough staff as they need them to handle cancellations and rebookings caused by the government’s twists and turns. And for those few who can, furlough ends in September.

There were hopes business might pick up in summer 2021, but it’s September now; specialist operators can’t turn their programmes on and off like a tap whenever travel is allowed to a particular destination, for some brief and undefined period, so that pretty much writes off summer 2021.

So, for all the above reasons, the word that comes to mind – is anger.

Derek Moore is deputy chair of Aito and was one of the co-founders of Explore Worldwide.